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Students Look for DNA in a Doritos Corn Chip

Biotech Bootcamp offers students more lab experience

 

High school students from around the county isolated and located genetically modified DNA in a Doritos corn chip at the Biotechnology Bootcamp for Kids, at the San Joaquin County Office of Education (SJCOE). The boot camp is an opportunity for sixth- to 12th-grade students to get hands-on biotechnology experience in a lab setting.

Students were surrounded by advanced science laboratory equipment and were exposed to procedures that they do not generally get in their high school classrooms.

“My school doesn’t have stuff like this,” said Scout Steinkamp, an 11th-grader at Linden High School. “I wanted to expand my knowledge.”

A common force among the participants was intellectual curiosity. Spencer Takechi, a 12th-grader from Stockton Collegiate International Schools, said that he is interested in the idea of GMOs (genetically modified organisms) and that he wants to learn more about the science behind them.

Hosted by SJCOE’s STEM department, one of the goals for the boot camp was to provide students with experience that will help them develop skills they need to work in a research lab. Before the students completed the lab experiment, they first learned how to write in a research notebook.

Kirk Brown, director of STEM, taught the students how to correctly annotate their notebooks and how to properly display sketches of a lab. Basic skills, such as learning how to open a bottle of sterile water without contaminating it, and resetting a scale to zero, are necessary skills to learn if students are planning to work in a lab setting.

According to Brown’s co-teacher, Andrew Hutton, a recent UC Santa Cruz graduate and Tracy High School alumnus, the boot camp is intended to give students hireable skills for a science lab setting. Hutton said that students need to know practical skills in a lab setting if they want to be hired.

In fact, one of them already is. Sierra Gregory, an 11th-grader at BrainworX Academy of Venture Academy Family of Schools, works as a paid intern for STEM. She was a participant of the Biotech Bootcamp, but she also helps co-teach the boot camp for the sixth -to eighth-graders and the ninth- and 10th-graders, as well as help set up the lab for the 11th- and 12th-graders.

Daniel Van Lewen, a 12th-grader, and Nicholas Gagnon, an 11th-grader, both from Ripon High School, said they signed up because they wanted more lab experience. Van Lewen said he heard about the opportunity from his high school counselor and knew he would be able to use more complex tools and learn new procedures at the boot camp.

Each student at the boot camp was equipped with their own lab tools. According to Brown, most of the equipment was donated or purchased through grants. The boot camp is fee-based in order to cover the costs of the materials.

This is the third year for the boot camp and the first year that it has had juniors and seniors.

The boot camp lasts for three consecutive days for each grade group: sixth- to eighth-graders, ninth- and 10th-graders, and 11th- and 12th-graders. Other items on the agenda include cheek swabs to look at their own DNA to determine if they inherited a specific genetic element.

For more information about SJCOE STEM, please visit http://www.sjcoescience.org/

Posted: 7/10/2015