If you ever see this parked at a Maryland school, it's probably packed with students learning everything from chemistry and forensics to cell biology and genetics. The MdBio Foundation project, celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, is outfitted with 16 lab stations and visits schools throughout the state for not only hands-on science lessons but to also get kids interested in STEM careers. At least 100,000 Maryland kids have taken a turn in the moving lab.
MdBioLab, which requires about $500,000 a year to run, has three instructors, including Tim Carter and Angel Mangus, whom we snapped last week while they ran lab instructions at Seneca Valley High School in Germantown, Md. With science backgrounds and young, fresh faces, they can relate to and hopefully inspire the students. This honors science class was learning about chemical reactions in protein enzymes. The moving lab has been hugely popular, with schools reserving time slots within hours of them getting posted to MdBioLab's website.
MdBio Foundation recently hired Brian Gaines as its CEO to help run not only MdBioLab but also the foundation's summer camp, which brings students into Maryland biotech companies to learn about their work. He's also working with developers to create a mobile and web "serious" game that teaches kids hard-to-learn biology lessons. Brian comes from a business and nonprofit background, having run the Redskins charitable foundation before taking the MdBio job. One of his first jobs was opening the first Ben & Jerry's west of the Mississippi in San Francisco in 1990. (That puts him right up there with Lewis & Clark in terms of heroism.)
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