About $500,000 worth of lab equipment and supplies was spread out in an Amgen parking lot Thursday in Thousand Oaks, waiting to be taken away and used in classrooms to help students learn about science.

It was the biotechnology company's fifth lab equipment donation event this year, in which items no longer needed are given away to schools and colleges.

"It's a huge deal for us," said Geraldine Lamar, an eighth-grade science teacher from E.O. Green School in Oxnard.

As she picked through the items Thursday, she managed to get her hands on an overhead projector, lab coats, bottles, glassware and other small science equipment items.

"I also managed to get almost enough binders for every student in my school," she said. "We have a lot of students whose parents are migrant farmworkers, and they need basic supplies like these."

Jeremy Bolton is a senior associate for contract management at Amgen, and part of his job is to oversee waste management. He was in charge of the giveaway.

"It's a way of giving back to the community and helping schools get equipment they can't purchase easily," he said. "We don't want to see all this stuff go to waste."

The supplies were given away on a first-come, first-served basis, which made for some healthy competition among educators who at times resembled bargain hunters at a holiday sale.

"The most popular items were incubators," said Bolton. "Lab coats were also a big hit, and gloves and things like that."

The program began in 1996 and has grown in popularity over the years. Amgen spokeswoman Sarah Rockwell said most of the 20 local schools and 10 universities invited to Thursday's event sent representatives.

"It's like Christmas come early for science teachers," said chemistry and biology teacher Mary Haus, who drove all the way from Los Osos High School in Rancho Cucamonga to get some free lab equipment.

Haus and fellow chemistry teacher Judy Peters were attending the event for the first time and agreed the long drive was worth it.

"There is no way in our budget that we would be able to afford the equipment," said Haus, "and this equipment is going to give our students amazing opportunities that there's no way they would have otherwise."

"We'll be able to enrich our honors classes," Peters said, "and we're hoping it will help us to introduce a new elective in biotechnology for a future school year."

Peters and Haus packed a biohazard fume hood, refrigerator, DNA sequencer and copy machine into the truck they'd brought to transport the equipment.

Craig Monden, who teaches biology at Arcadia High School, reckoned he had collected supplies and equipment worth about $5,000.

"High schools always struggle with materials, so this will really help us carry out experiments without having to scrounge or improvise," he said. "You always sacrifice performance when you improvise, so this allows us not to have to do that, and that's the best thing."

Amgen donated about $1.5 million worth of lab equipment and office supplies to schools, colleges and universities in 2007, company officials said.