Teens Get High-Tech Experience at MCCC’s
Advanced Technology Summer Camps
June 20, 2007, Blue Bell, Pa.—During the week of June 18, Montgomery County Community College offered Advanced Technology summer camps in Engineering and Nanotechnology/ Biotechnology for high school students at its Blue Bell campus. In its first year, the Engineering Camp is sponsored by the Delaware Valley Industrial Resource Center (DVIRC) in partnership with the U.S. Department of Labor. The Nanotechnology/Biotechnology Camp, which is in its third year, is sponsored by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. As a result of the funding, both camps were free of charge to the students.
During the Engineering Camp, 20 students were exposed to the areas of physics, engineering graphics, chemical engineering, robotics, binary encoding and material science. The lessons in each area were followed by an accompanying activity. For example, after learning about the principles of physics from Kelli Spangler, Instructor of Physics and Astronomy at the College, the students participated in an egg drop competition. During the activity, each student designed and constructed a holding chamber to keep a raw egg safe as it was dropped two stories from the roof of the Science Center. The chambers were constructed exclusively from the materials provided, which included cardboards, tongue depressors, straws, plastic shopping bags and cotton, among other things. According to Jennifer Shannon, Director of the Engineering Camp, “the activity reinforced the concepts of aerodynamics, impact and gravity that the students had just learned about in the classroom.” |
 Engineering Camp participants watch as Physics/ Astronomy Instructor Kelli Spangler drops their egg chambers from the roof of the Science Center. Eggs in only two projects broke on impact. |
 Biotechnology Instructor Kevin Lampe prepares Nanotechnology/Biotechnology Camp participants for an experiment in bioengineering. |
The 18 students in the Nanotechnology/Biotechnology Camp were exposed to the areas of drug design, crime scene investigation, bioengineering, bioterrorism and infectious diseases, and scanning electron microscope analysis. They also traveled to Drexel University for a tour of a nanotechnology facility. Like the Engineering Camp, the lessons in each area of the Nanotechnology/Biotechnology Camp were followed by an accompanying activity. For example, after learning the general principles of bioengineering from Kevin Lampe, Instructor of Biotechnology at the College, students completed a lab titled “Molecular Scissors.” During the lab, they removed the gene from a jellyfish that is responsible for the glowing trait and inserted into a bacterium, thus transferring the trait. |
Both camps are part of Montgomery County Community College’s ongoing Advanced Technologies Initiative, which looks to support and encourage the research, development and implementation of new and revised programs in advanced technologies both at the College and in the region. Students from the following high schools participated in the camps: Calvary Christian Academy, Central, Cheltenham, Hatboro/Horsham, Lower Moreland, Norristown, North Penn, Perkiomen Valley, Plymouth Whitemarsh, Pottstown, Spring Ford, Spring Side School, Wissahickon, Upper Merion, Upper Moreland and upper Perkiomen.
