Date: May 14,, 2009
Contact: Carol Connelly, Director, Media & Communication Services, ext. 5267, cconnelly@pnc.edu

PNC Hosts Science Camp for Starke County Students, Teachers

WESTVILLE – Purdue University North Central will open its classrooms during the week of June 15 to 20 to Starke County middle school students and five Starke County science teachers who will enjoy a five-day, hands-on science and health camp.

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 pilot program is designed to stimulate interest in health science among middle school students by providing learning activities that increase awareness of potential health science and medical professions. In the meantime, their middle school science teachers will themselves find out about creative projects and educational resources that they can put to use in their classroom to stimulate student interest and success in science and related topics.

An additional benefit of this program is a wellness component, through which the students and teachers will become more familiar with the biological basis of the human body and its systems and learn the relationship of nutrition and exercise to health and wellness.

This program was designed by Christine Brletic, associate director of Northwest Indiana Area Health Education Center , in close collaboration with Dr. Nancy Marthakis, PNC associate professor of Biology, and a Doctor of Osteopathy.

"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 setting," said Marthakis.

Marthakis plans to have a "forensic" portion to the camp so that students will search an outside crime scene marked with yellow crime scene tape. They will dig up bones that Marthakis will bury ahead of time and then study the bones in a PNC lab to identify which bones they are; if the victim was male or female, approximate age and do a basic DNA analysis.

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.

“Exposing middle school students to a university campus and giving them the opportunity to interact with a biology professor and physician, will allow them to become familiar with the university environment and may inspire them to pursue post-secondary education,” said Brletic. “This experience will give them valuable insight on what university life entails.”

According to Lynn Olszweski, director of the Northwest Indiana Area Health Education Center , m ultiple studies have shown that in the coming years Indiana will have significant shortfalls of physicians, nurses and pharmacists. These studies also indicate that greatest shortages will occur in already medically underserved communities like Starke County . These students are ideal candidates to fulfill those needs.”

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