MABIC Organizes Biotech Workshops for Malaysian Educators

The Malaysian Biotechnology Information Centre (MABIC) has been working closely with the Ministry of Education (MOE) to enhance biotechnology pedagogy in secondary schools since 2006. In 2007, the Curriculum Development Centre (CDC) at MOE welcomed the suggestion from MABIC to organize biotechnology workshops for science teachers.

Between 2007-2009 several host institutions in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur played host for these workshops, namely, National Science Centre, Forest Research Institute Malaysia, and Malaysian Palm Oil Board. In 2010, MABIC and CDC decided to reach out to teachers in other states where Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, and Universiti Kelantan Malaysia were chosen as hosts.

This year, another milestone was created when MABIC jointly organized the workshop with Molecular Plant Breeding Cooperative Research Centre (MPBCRC) which is based in Melbourne. Ms. Belinda Griffiths from Victoria AgriBiosciences Centre was in Malaysia to conduct a Molecular Biology Workshop for teachers with funding from the Australian Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research. MABIC and MOE brought this workshop to the East Coast of Malaysia where Universiti Malaysia Terengganu played the host for teachers from Kuala Terengganu on 12 May. Another workshop was conducted at Universiti Sarawak Malaysia on 18 May and the last workshop at Melaka Biotechnology Corporation on 20 May. A total number of 80 teachers participated in these workshops who were excited to extract DNA from fruits, conduct gel electrophoresis, and to understand PCR techniques and restriction enzymes.

The workshop at Melaka Biotechnology Corporation was launched by the Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Haji Mohd Ali bin Mohd Rustam who wanted more workshops of this kind to be organized in Melaka for teachers around the country.

For more details about the workshops email Mahaletchumy Arujanan of MABIC at maha@bic.org.my