The San Diego area is home to more than 500 biomedical companies. Its Salk Institute is renowned for its focus on biological research. Its life science industry garnered nearly $1 billion in venture capital investments during 2002 and 2003. Molecular and cellular biology are two vital disciplines that mark its Scripps Research Institute. The list goes on and on, eventually comprising close to 35,000 life sciences personnel in an enormous variety of biological disciplines.
All those practitioners had to start somewhere. Many of them teach middle- and high-school science, with aspirations to more advanced employment and bigger pay scales. Institutions of higher education surround them accordingly “” but often, the course work involved complex commitments, some of which may curtail prospects for employment.
That recently changed with the inception of a new master’s program in biology at Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU). Designed to accommodate full-time science teachers, it includes at least one deeply distinguishing feature. And amid this region’s presence in biological and life sciences, it’s an idea whose time has come.
“First,” program director Dianne Anderson explained, “as far as we know, no other California university offers a master’s degree in general biology that can be completed while working full-time “¦ One may exist, but they’re not advertising well if they’re out there.
“Second, the program has a great deal of flexibility in terms of degree option and range of elective courses. Third, students will develop a deep conceptual understanding of all of the fundamental biological concepts as well as learn what aspects of the topic are most challenging for students to learn and how to teach these topics successfully.”
The curriculum, begun last June, evolved from popular demand at PLNU seminars and workshops, as the area’s biology teachers cited time conflicts in their pursuit of higher education. The bulk of the course work, Anderson explained, is conducted during the summer (the height of school closings), with the remainder taught online during the academic year. Students can expect to report to campus an average of one Saturday a month during fall and spring semesters, she said.
The program offers a Master of Science credential upon completion of a thesis and a Master of Arts in the absence of a thesis. It also offers internships in a variety of settings amid PLNU’s relationships with museums, research institutes and biotech companies.
Fourteen teachers are enrolled in the program, which has 10 vacancies for spring. Cost of the program ranges between $14,000 and $20,000 depending on the M.A./M.S. option.
“We certainly weren’t trying to be the first one in the state,” Anderson said. “But in doing the program’s advertising, we were looking for other models to go by and haven’t been able to find any.” Anderson added that similar programs exist in Arizona and Washington state.
The program is a natural fit, Anderson said, given the region’s concentration of life science professions.
“Biology education is a big thing in San Diego,” Anderson said. “On this campus, it’s a big major. Most of our majors are going into premed and predental. And a fourth of UCSD’s undergrads are biology majors. Granted, most of those people are not going to go into education, but there’s a percentage that will.”
Anderson can be reached at (619) 849-2705 or at [email protected]. Questions about the application process should be directed to the university’s graduate enrollment counselor at (619) 563-2856 or E [email protected]. Further information on the program is available at www.pointloma.edu/Biology.