21 Rising Ninth-Graders Attend Biotech Camp at RCC
ASHEBORO (June 22, 2007)
Randolph Community College biology instructor Donna Perry (right) aids rising ninth-graders in a DNA experiment during a Biotechnology Camp held at RCC this week. The camp was designed to introduce biotechnology as a science career choice.
Twenty-one rising ninth-graders completed a week-long Biotechnology Camp at Randolph Community College this week designed to introduce biotechnology as a science career choice. Participants were selected from students accepted as incoming freshmen by Randolph Early College High School. They attended classes from 9 a.m.-noon in RCC’s Health & Science Center focusing on forensics, agriculture, disease and medicines/ pharmaceuticals.
“The students learned skills such as observation, collaboration and problem-solving, and they came away with a better understanding of the use of gene science to create new products from plants and animals,” said Donna Perry, biology instructor and coordinator of math, science, health and physical education for RCC. Their activities included constructing a DNA model, analyzing DNA gels, transferring cultured Venus’s-flytrap plants to soil, and completing a DNA murder mystery kit. One of the more popular experiments involved transforming bacteria with a fluorescent gene from a jellyfish, which made the bacteria glow green.
Randolph Early College High School science instructor Marie Milliner (right), who assisted with the Biotechnology Camp held in RCC’s Health & Science Center, oversees a student in an exercise to transfer cultured Venus’s-flytrap plants to soil.
The Biotech Camp was funded by a $13,954 BioNetworkgrant from the State Board of Community Colleges to increase the interest in biotechnology and related life sciences as a career.
Subsequently, the equipment purchased by the grant from BioNetwork will be available to the RCC science faculty to expand the number of biology lab activities and offer a range of biotech seminars and workshops to interested groups including potential biotechnology workforce members.
Ultimately, the grant will enable RCC and its educational and workforce development partners to better market biotechnology as a career by increasing the number of individuals exposed to the duties and satisfactions of a career in science. This will help create a pipeline of prospective biotechnology students for tomorrow’s workforce.
RCC offers an associate in applied science degree in Biotechnology in collaboration with Alamance Community College. The program is designed to prepare graduates to serve in three distinct capacities: research assistant to a biologist or a chemist; laboratory technician/instrumentation technician, and quality control/quality assurance technician. All first-year classes may be taken at RCC, then students transfer to ACC for all second-year courses and completion of the program.
Students who attended the camp, their hometowns, and the middle school from which they graduated follow:
- Archdale-Trinity Middle School: Christopher Chang and Allen Turner, both of Archdale; Angela VonCannon, Thomasville; and Remmie Becker, Philip Henderson, Bethany Hollingsworth and Brittany Key, all of Trinity.
- Home School: Katelyn Huffman of Sophia.
- Northeastern Randolph Middle School: Maritza Jiminez of Liberty, Danielle Thompson of Climax.
- Randleman Middle School: Lauren Bellamy of Sophia; Paige King, J. Ivon Palomades, and Yoselin Perez-Vallejo, all of Randleman.
- Southeastern Randolph Middle School: Jasmin Solis of Siler City, and Julie Williams of Ramseur.
- Southwestern Randolph Middle School: Holly Chriscoe of Seagrove, Megan Starling of Asheboro.
- Uwharrie Middle School: Phylicia Clemens, Jacob Cutshaw, and Elijah Laprise, all of Asheboro.
For more information or to apply for entry into the Biotechnology program, contact RCC’s Information Center at 336-633-0200.
