Date: June 18, 2009
Contact: Carol Connelly, Director, Media & Communication Services, ext. 5267, cconnelly@pnc.edu

 

Caption: Participants in the PNC Science Camp look over items collected during a forensics activity that was part of the week-long camp. Download high resolution image here: www.pnc.edu/news/marthakisbio1.jpg

PNC Brings Starke County Students to Campus for Science Camp

WESTVILLE – Purdue University North Central opened its doors to a group of budding scientists, medical professionals, lab technicians, veterinarians and crime scene investigators this past week during its Science and Health Camp for Starke County middle school students.

About 20 students were welcomed to campus to enjoy an array of learning activities that helped to pique their interest in science and to increase their awareness of potential health science and medical professions. Many of the students were already interested in science and related professions and the camp helped to reinforce their enthusiasm and expose them to new challenges and opportunities. Plus, being on a university campus and learning from a PNC faculty member helped to get the students thinking about higher education.

"One of our major goals with this camp is to stimulate interest in health care and biological sciences early on, so that students are better prepared for these disciplines when they enter the college," said Dr. Nancy Marthakis, PNC associate professor of Biology, and a Doctor of Osteopathy. “Our goal is to hook a kid on science or health care.”

The camp is made possible by a grant from the Starke County Community Foundation, through the Northwest Indiana Area Health Education Center and its fiscal sponsor, the Purdue University Calumet School of Nursing. This program was designed by Christine Brletic, associate director of Northwest Indiana Area Health Education Center , in close collaboration with Marthakis.

The Northwest Indiana Area Health Education Center was the second regional center established by the State of Indiana . Locally, the program focus is on the need to “Grow Our Own” health care professionals. The Area Health Education Centers were established nationwide by Congress in the early 1970s to establish partnerships with educational institutions, health care professionals and communities in order to improve access to quality health care in rural and disadvantaged urban environments.

The students were eager to spend their mornings in a science lab conducting experiments, recording their findings, writing reports and learning new concepts from Marthakis. Many activities were designed for the Science Camp students. Their teachers will also receive special informational packets with ideas that they can incorporate into their classroom sessions.

The PNC campus and its large pond also provided a natural outdoor lab for the students, too. One way that Marthakis took advantage of that was to set up a “crime scene” at the pond. Everything was bordered with yellow crime scene tape and she hid synthetic bones that she uses in the classroom throughout the area. Students searched the area, even using nets to search the pond water.

Once they collected all the bones, they returned to the lab to analyze them, just as a lab technician or crime scene investigator would.

“We found out that the ‘victim' was female,” said Taylor Kemble, who will be in eighth grade at Knox Middle School in the fall.

How did she know that? “We measured the skull and pelvis. Its size helps to determine the gender.”

Kemble looks forward to becoming a veterinarian. But she admits she wasn't always interested in science. “My teacher told me ‘You're good at this,' and I found out I really liked science.” This year she got an A+ in science.

Kacie Joe Schumacher, a ninth grade student at North Judson/San Pierre High School, wants to become a nurse. Her mother, who attended Purdue North Central, is a nurse.

“I always thought that being a nurse would be cool,” she said. The camp “reinforces what I want to do.”

One of her favorite exercises was growing yogurt cultures in the class.

Collecting crime scene evidence hit home with Bertha Tolson, a North Judson San Pierre seventh grader.

“I want to be a crime scene investigator,” she said, as she quickly explained how bones are analyzed in the lab. “I've liked science since the first grade. I think it is interesting. There is so much involved.”

Other subjects that Marthakis covered in the camp included the human body, blood and the circulatory system, bacteria and communicable disease, human anatomy, DNA and crime scene analysis. They also studied their own DNA and made a small DNA model that they could make into a necklace. Another exercise saw the students study an epidemic and determine exactly who was “person zero” and the root of the outbreak.

Before the start of every learning activity, the students take a pre-quiz. Afterwards they take the same quiz again to determine just how much they learned. “They know a lot coming in, but they also learn a tremendous amount while they're here, too,” said Marthakis. “It's a lot of fun.”

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