Science lessons heat up in the summer
While many students were taking a much needed summer break from learning, other students were hard at work.
On Tuesday, 16 area students spent their day learning about the scientific process and got a handson experience in fields including molecular biology and biochemistry.
“We started this last year as a pilot phase and it grew out of an initiative at this college where we sponsored what we call G STEM lab, which is Green STEM,” said David DeMatteo, vice president of Montgomery County Community College West Campus. “It’s an environmental aspect of science and we figured it was a positive influence on young people for STEM and STEM education. So when Fox Chase had this emerging opportunity we partnered with them.”
The camp is aimed at teaching kids ages 13 to 15 about laboratory techniques including micropipetting, gell loading and solutions and dilutions. During the course of the week-long camp, students received crash courses in these techniques before moving on to studying fruit flies on the third and fourth days. On the final day, students presented their findings during a poster presentation session.
“What they are making are called grape juice plates,” explained Katherine one of the instructors for the camp. “They’re go- ing to use them to start their fly experiments. Grape juice plates provide a little area for flies to lay eggs so we can measure their fertility and understand whether these flies are laying eggs a lot or not and check to see the foods that they’re eating.”
On Tuesday, students used magnetic stirrers, petri dishes and pipettes to createmixtures that would eventually turn into a solid similar to gelatin.
“So they made their recipe and mixed it and now they’re going to be trying to take the liquid and heat it up until they make a solid form,” she said. “And they’re learning about how the chemicals we’re using interact with each other. So they learn a little bit about chemistry, biology and why you need all the sciences to be able to func- tion as a researcher.”
The camp is co-hosted by Fox Chase Cancer Cen- ter’s Immersion Science Program and the Science, Technology and Mathe- matics division at Montgomery County Community College.