Middle School students study their own DNA in VGCC Biotech lab
Henderson Middle School students recently learned about working with DNA, as part of an ongoing partnership between the Vance-Granville Community College Bioprocess Technology program and the Citizen Schools after-school program.
Citizen Schools is a national non-profit organization dedicated to providing students with access to educational and economic opportunity. Henderson Middle School is one of only four schools in North Carolina with a Citizen Schools program, according to the national Citizen Schools web site .
VGCC Bioprocess Technology program head/instructor Joseph Tyler has become one of the “citizen teachers” in the local community who lead apprenticeships for the program. Under Tyler’s direction, the HMS students are getting hands-on experience in the state-of-the-art biotechnology lab on VGCC’s main campus. In the fall 2009 semester, the subject was biofuels, and in spring 2010, the students have moved on to studying DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). On March 23, Tyler instructed students as they performed a polymerase chain reaction (PCR), one of the most important and common techniques used in medical and biological research labs. Through PCR, the students “amplified,” or copied, DNA that they had taken from their own cheek cells. That would later allow the students to use the amplified DNA in a mock “crime scene investigation” scenario. Citizen Schools team leader Connie Terry accompanied ten students, who included sixth, seventh and eighth graders, to the VGCC lab on March 23. “The students are benefiting from the experience of working with current laboratory equipment and performing experiments,” Tyler said.
VGCC’s two-year Bioprocess Technology degree program is designed to prepare individuals to work as Process Operators in biological products manufacturing facilities. For more information on Bioprocess Technology , call Joseph Tyler at (252) 738-3350.
Above: VGCC Bioprocess Technology program head Joseph Tyler (center) distributes materials to Henderson Middle School students in the lab on the college’s main campus, as Citizen Schools team leader Connie Terry (standing, left) looks on. (VGCC photo)
