Elmhurst Elementary School teacher Lorraine LaPorte won’t need to use spaghetti sauce jars in her science lessons anymore after picking out glass solution jars from donated science supplies at Foothill Thursday.
Over $50,000 worth of biotechnology equipment from the Camarillo branch of Life Technologies was recently donated to Foothill and excess supplies were distributed among other schools Wednesday and Thursday.
“It was easier for them [Life Technologies] to buy new equipment in Maryland where they are moving than to ship all of this there,” said Foothill science teacher Wendi Butler, “so they gave it away.”
According to Butler, Life Technologies originally contacted schools in Camarillo but they never showed up to collect the merchandise, so the company called her.
“We got stuff that we could have never afforded,” Butler said, which included an electronic serological pipette pump and an aliquoting pipette.
“It’s really exciting,” Butler said, “We are stockpiled, we won’t have to buy anything else for years!”
And with a room full of materials, there was more than enough to share.
“We can’t use all of it, even the high schools can’t use all of it, so we are sharing everything with the elementary and middle schools too,” Butler said, “The elementary schools don’t even have enough money for a glass solution jar so we are trying to make that available.”
On Wednesday, Butler and Foothill teacher Darcy Perez furnished Pacific High School with supplies to set up a lab that had previously not even had thermometers.
Both Buena and Ventura High School also received 30 micropipettes and enough equipment to start a biotechnology class.
Teachers from both Anacapa and Balboa Middle School showed up on Thursday to pick up more resources for their classes.
“This is a great opportunity to get new materials, especially with budget cuts,” said eighth grade Balboa teacher Cyndy Treutelaar who was mostly looking at glassware for her Physical Science students.
“Amgen has given out material in the past too, but it’s once in a blue moon,” Treutelaar said.
Anacapa teacher Monica Stanley picked out bottles for her seventh and eighth grade students which they will use to collect water from local creeks. Students will then bring the bottles back to school and test the water for things like pH levels.
