Mobile lab brings bioscience lessons to students- MdBio supports an effort to build 100 more mobile labs across the country, using federal funds.

SANDY SPRING, Md. (AP) — School’s out, but the lessons keep rolling for high school science teacher Scott McIntosh and the students he meets aboard the MdBio Lab, an 18-wheeler filled with laboratory gear.

USA Today

The trailer, created by Maryland’s biotechnology industry, is traveling the state this summer to boost awareness of scientific careers.

"This mobile lab is a field trip that we can bring to a school," said McIntosh, a biology and environmental science teacher at Walkersville High School in Frederick County.

He and a biotech scientist from the Institute for Genomic Research in Rockville have been on loan from their jobs to teach from the trailer.

"We’ve got equipment in here that’s the latest in the field, and students get the chance to use it," McIntosh said.

MdBio Inc., a nonprofit group based in Frederick that promotes biotechnology in Maryland, designed and outfitted the $500,000 trailer with financial support from Montgomery County and private organizations including the Institute for Genomic Research, Fisher Scientific, the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health and the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute.

Last school year, the trailer went to schools in Howard, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, Baltimore city and the District of Columbia. Project leaders say more than 5,000 students and their teachers have visited the trailer, which has space for 32 people to conduct experiments.

"The whole purpose of the mobile lab is to raise awareness that there are jobs out there for those who want to do science and technology," McIntosh said. "We hope to get them hooked on liking it, and if not, well, a day in here is better than a day taking notes in a classroom."

One recent summer morning, the mobile lab sat in the nearly empty parking lot of Sherwood High School in Sandy Spring. Inside the white trailer, middle school students filled glass test tubes with solutions. Their assignment: determine which of three sports drinks contains the most proteins.

"We got it, Mr. Mac! We got it!" a group of three boys shouted 90 minutes later.

McIntosh checked their graphs and charts. They were right: Company B’s drink had the most proteins.

Some of the students praised the MdBio Lab’s hands-on approach to science.

"It’s fun," said Henrik Molintas, 13, of Brookeville. "In school, we just study it instead of really doing it. This is fun because we get to see the results."

Executives at MdBio developed their mobile science lab after a Boston-based program. There are similar programs in North Carolina, Connecticut and Virginia.

MdBio Lab targets schools that don’t have much equipment, said Stacey Franklin, a program coordinator.

She said MdBio supports an effort to build 100 more mobile labs across the country, using federal funds.

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