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May 2006 | Jan 2007 | Feb 2007 | March 2007 | April 2007
May 2007 | June 2007
MTM Award Recipient
George Cachianes
Abraham Lincoln High School
George Cachianes grew up in New York and went to kindergarten through 12th grade in Brooklyn. He received a B.S. in biology at San Francisco State University. He teaches 10th, 11th and 12th grades, teaching two biotechnology courses: a first-year introductory course and a second-year “advanced, advanced” course. He has taught at Lincoln for 12 years. Mr. Cachianes was first drawn to teaching when he was an instructor for a white-water rafting clinic at U.C. San Francisco. His passion is to bring a biotechnology program to high school students that is challenging, hands-on and fun. Lincoln now has 180 students enrolled in biotechnology classes each year. (This includes about one third of the graduating senior class.) He has helped get biotechnology classes going at Galileo, Wallenberg, Lowell, and John O'Connell high schools as well and is currently writing a biotechnology textbook with another teacher. Before becoming a teacher, he attended Stanford University and worked at Genentech. Many of his former students are now working in the biotechnology industry, including several at Genentech. “I teach students to think by allowing them to construct knowledge themselves, through guided questioning,” said Mr. Cachianes. “I use inquiry learning and a lot of laboratory work to apply concepts. I run my classes using a business model so that students also learn about jobs and industry.” Mr. Cachianes said that he is most proud of creating two full years of curriculum from scratch, based on industry standards. “I am proud of raising $50,000 annually for biotech professional development for teachers throughout SFUSD. I am very proud of the dozens of former Lincoln students now making good salaries working for the biotech industry.”
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