Date: June 3, 2010
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 14 to 18 to Starke County middle school students and five Starke County science teachers who will enjoy a hands-on science and health camp.

The camp is made possible by a grant from the Starke County Community Foundation and presented through a partnership of the Northwest Indiana Area Health Education Center and PNC.

In its second year, the camp 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.

This year, 21 students and three teachers will take part in the camp, including five students who attended the camp last year and decided to return for another learning experience.

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.

The camp activities will include learning activities on:

“Bacteria: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly: Is the Beach Safe to Swim?” Students will have a bacterial culture activity and they will make yogurt from milk as part of their studies.

“Communicable Diseases: How Fast Does Disease Spread?” This will feature a mock epidemic activity.

“The Circulatory System: Got Blood?” Participants will explore what is in blood and participate in the making of fake blood. They will also visit the PNC Nursing labs for a demonstration of the SIM man equipment.

“Anatomy Day” will highlight forensic science. The “lab” will be a mock outdoor outside crime scene marked with yellow crime scene tape. Students will dig up synthetic bones that Marthakis will bury ahead of time and then study the bones in a PNC lab. The students will also visit the cadaver lab

The final day of the camp will take place at Starke County Hospital with a tour and activities.

The Northwest Indiana Area Health Education Center was the second regional center established by the State of Indiana i n 2001. It is hosted by the Purdue University Calumet's School of Nursing. It serves 19 Northwest Indiana counties.

The Area Health Education Centers were established nationwide by Congress in the early 1970s to recruit, train and retain a health professions workforce committed to underserved populations. Today, 56 programs with more than 235 centers operate in almost every state and the District of Columbia. About 120 medical schools and 600 nursing and allied health schools work collaboratively with AHECs to improve health for underserved and under-represented populations.

 

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