Seven Lakes High School — in Katy, Texas — held Bio-Refresher courses for high school students and minority students to provide exposure to AP Biology and to train volunteers to teach at local Katy Elementary Schools using JMA’s Biology Curriculum.

Teenage activists at Seven Lakes High School vested to impart tangible change within their community recruited high school volunteers who were willing and able to contribute their time and efforts to educate the youth in biology.  In order to properly prepare these volunteers, the JMA refresher courses were used to “refresh” any previously learned biology knowledge in their minds, as well as to supplement that which they already were aware of with that which they were not. Each refresher course consisted of a few units of varying topics on biology, all aimed at providing our JMA volunteers with a strong base to be an effective teacher.

Though teaching a primarily Hispanic population was a notable challenge, the Seven Lakes High School JMA Team was able to translate the English JMA curriculum to Spanish, with the help of Bilingual Volunteers, to effectively engage and connect with their predominantly Hispanic audience.

As a result of the refresher courses, dozens of new JMA volunteers were effectively prepared to engage and educate the local elementary school students of Katy, Texas, engendering a an aspiration to pursue STEM  as a future career.