Bruce Boller is a National Board Certified science teacher at Bertie Early College High School. Mr. Boller is a veteran teacher that continues to refine his teaching practice so that his students are ready for career and college when they graduate. Students are learning on the ground what it takes to produce products that are usable, learning the realities of biotechnology research and development as well as real world techniques and issues related to this work. Mr. Boller builds networks with researchers, business professionals, biotechnology experts and school personnel that are instrumental in the formation of workplace skills in his students.
Bertie Early College High School Science Teacher Bruce Boller Acknowledged for STEM Excellence
28 April 2014
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC – The North Carolina Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education Center CEO and President Dr. Samuel Houston announced that Bertie Early College High School Science Teacher Bruce Boller is the 2014 winner of the SMT Center’s 9-16 Teacher of the Year Award. This award recognizes a N.C. education teacher who excels at improving STEM education in North Carolina.
Students in Mr. Boller’s classroom are actively engaged in work that does not mimic biotechnology techniques and ideas, but rather creates products that are useful in industry. For instance, through his work with Koci Lab at North Carolina State University, which students have formed a biotech company that will develop and carry out a protocol to produce and purify Recombinant Avian Cytokine for use in Dr. Koci’s and others’ research. Students are learning on the ground what it takes to produce products that are usable, learning the realities of biotechnology research and development as well as real world techniques and issues related to this work.
Mr. Boller has established a number of partnerships and projects. Among them are:
- Stellwag Lab at Eastern Carolina University: Students will develop and carry out a protocol for identifying, isolating, and mass producing soil microbes in an effort to identify, isolate, produce, and purify enzymes that may be useful in the production of biofuels from organic materials such as wood and crop wastes.
- Rose Lab at NCSU: Student will develop and carry out a protocol that will enable them to carry out site-directed mutagenesis of Green Fluorescent Protein. Students will develop and carry out a protocol to isolate the PCD gene from Thermophilic Archaeans, transform the PCD gene into E. coli and mass produce and purify the PCD enzyme for X-ray crystallography.
- Genetics and Microbiology Lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences : Students will develop and carry out a protocol for extracting genomic DNA from local fish species in order to carry out DNA barcoding and/or sequencing as part of an outreach project.
Mr. Boller is a National Board Certified Teacher and recently earned his master’s degree in science education from the North Carolina State University.
The SMT Celebration was established in 2007 to recognize and acknowledge leaders and innovators in STEM education across North Carolina.
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Media contact: Russ Campbell 919-667-8866 or news@bwfund.org