Huntsville, Ala. — HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology’s Educational Outreach team is bringing its popular genomics teacher training to a national audience. For the first time, the professional development workshop, Genetic Technologies for All Classrooms (GTAC) will be offered to teachers across the country.

GTAC is a five-day academy for educators that is in its eighth year of training Alabama Life Science educators.

“Our GTAC workshops provide a hands-on approach to teaching genetics, genomics and biotech concepts,” said Madelene Loftin, educator development lead at HudsonAlpha. “Teachers attending GTAC National will walk away with not only a number of HudsonAlpha resources, but also new and innovative ways to address those subjects in their classrooms.”

Thanks to the generous support of corporate and individual donors, tuition is reduced to $1,100. Tuition includes 40 hours of professional learning credit, housing, meals and $800 worth of HudsonAlpha kits, materials and classroom resources including Disorder Detectives, Collecting Cancer-Causing Changes (C4) Kit and Genes & ConSEQUENCES.

“I was totally blown away by my week at GTAC,” said Lori Roberts, an AP Biology teacher at Muscle Shoals High School. “The labs are engaging and current, and I was so excited to hear what the scientists at HudsonAlpha are doing. Their research is breaking new ground in terms of human health and agriculture. I left GTAC with a renewed zeal and love for genetics.” Roberts attended a GTAC workshop last summer.

Loftin and members of the Educational Outreach team will share information about GTAC: National and other innovative programs for educators at the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) conference March 15-18 in Atlanta, Ga., at booth 1104.

In addition, Neil Lamb, PhD, vice president for Educational Outreach, will do a presentation for teachers at the conference Saturday, March 17 at 8 am. Lamb will discuss the top biotech discoveries of 2017 and share ways to bring the ‘’too new for textbooks’’ discoveries to the classroom using student-friendly language. Session attendees will receive a free copy of HudsonAlpha’s 2017 Biotechnology Guidebook.

“The field of biotechnology is continuously changing so my presentation at NSTA will give educators a preview of what to expect at GTAC: National,” said Lamb.

GTAC: National will take place July 23-27 at HudsonAlpha. To learn more and register, visit hudsonalpha.org/GTACnational.

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