BIOSCIENCE HIGH IS OPEN TO ALL KIDS
Arizona Republic
June 15, 2006
Author: Karina Bland, The Arizona Republic, (Phoenix, AZ) Estimated printed pages: 2

Starting June 21, incoming freshman, regardless of where they live, can apply to attend the new Bioscience High School in Phoenix.

Until now, enrollment was limited to students who live within the Phoenix Union High School District.

About 40 spaces are available for other students.

Bioscience High opens in August and is in the heart of a downtown Phoenix biomedical campus that includes the global headquarters of the Translational Genomics Research Institute, or TGen.

The 125 freshmen will study at the school's temporary location at the Phoenix Preparatory Academy until spring, when they will move into a state-of-the-art, $9.5 million campus at Fifth and Pierce streets.

The new building itself will be a teaching tool, with invisible sound barriers between study areas, cooling systems left exposed for study, and impressions of fossils set into concrete walls.

Each year, as a new class is added, the school will grow until there are 400 students. Students will tap data into laptop computers and splice DNA in labs that would rival what is typically seen at colleges and research facilities.

The curriculum will be rigorous, with yearlong projects and two-hour blocks of physics and algebra starting freshman year. Students will take one of two languages, Chinese or Spanish, and study the arts.

Applications are available by mail or they can be downloaded at www.phxhs .k12.az.us.

Students must submit letters of recommendation from three teachers and one other adult and write an essay.

Details: (602) 764-1526.
Edition: Final Chaser
Section: VALLEY & State
Page: B10