TEACHER PARTICIPATES AT PRINCETON

Published in the Marlboro-Manalapan Reporter/Asbury Park Press 
7/25/2002 By Jonathan Rifkin

Every child who comes through Collier High School biology teacher Paige Barnett’s classroom will not attend Princeton University, but that doesn’t mean they will not get a taste of what the Ivy League learning institution has to offer.

Barnett completed a two-week molecular biology outreach program last week, sponsored by the Princeton University Molecular Biology Department and funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Barnett is one of 25 teachers chosen to participate in the program, which is designed to “illustrate the way in which discoveries are made in the natural sciences, the principles of modern molecular biology and genetics and the application of these principles to questions of human health and disease.”

Ann Sliski, outreach coordinator of the summer workshop and the Princeton University Department of Molecular Biology, said the program has been in place for 12 years.

“It’s been a great two weeks.” Sliski said.  “We’ve loved having Paige as a part of our group, and it seems she is very enthused about sharing this with her kids.”

Jeanne Navagh, Development Coordinator for Collier, said the Marlboro school is an alternative education facility for teens whose academic and emotional needs cannot be met in public schools.  Barnett has been a teacher at Collier, in the Wickatunk section of Marlboro, for three years.

The teacher said she hopes knowledge from the course and the loaner kit, filled with university equipment that can be used in her classroom, will enhance the learning experience of her students.

“They can take this knowledge onto college with them,” Barnett said.  “The idea is to stay on top of technology and pass it on to keep the kids on top of things.”

Barnett and other teachers in the program have been given accommodations on the Princeton University campus.  She said she spends all day in the lab, and every day at lunch “key members” of the staff give talks on the progress they have made in their respective fields.

“These are cutting-edge concepts,” she said.  “I’m getting a lot out of it.  If you are a teacher, you are always a student trying to develop new curriculum and to never stop learning.”

Barnett said she began working for Collier after realizing the enjoyment she had from teaching horseback riding several years ago.

“People told me I was a natural, and I kind of realized from there how much I loved the relationship between student and teacher and seeing that light bulb go on,” she said.  “Just watching the kids grow and learn where I work is amazing.”