Biotech Day Camp Starts with the Big Freeze

Did you know a college education can including learning how to make milk and ice cream? As our biotech day campers found out today there is a sweet side to a college education at North Carolina State University and it involves science.

Three counties have joined together for this unique first time opportunity. The 4-H Biotech Day Camp explores the present and future of careers in the up and coming biotech industry and the role science may play in their futures. Hoke, Bladen and Robeson County 4-H programs are joining together for this wonderful summer opportunity for youth between the ages of 9-13. For those of you wondering what biotech is, it is it stands for biotechnology. Biotechnology encompasses a wide range of sciences including biology, chemistry, genetic engineering, microbiology, molecular biology, embryology, information technology, and much more. As part of this day camp we will explore the ways biotechnology and science impacts our lives from everything from cell structures to crops and food. Biotechnology is considered an up and coming industry in life sciences and the future is endless for our imaginative youth.

Today we kicked off the day camp with a special tour of the dairy at N. C. State University. Did you know that they make their own milk for the campus and ice cream? The process is a bit more complex than milking a cow and heating the milk so bacteria is killed. As we learned today what you do determines if you are making milk (whole, skim, 2%) chocolate milk, ice cream, and different flavors of ice cream. We learned what happens from the time a cow is milked until the milk or ice cream shows up on your table, including packaging, refrigeration and the security required around food processing to protect what we eat from terrorist attacks. Our youth asked questions about codes on pipes and machinery to what the difference is between pasteurized and homogenized. Of course their favorite part (after visiting the milk refrigerator and ice cream freezers) was testing the ice cream. Mr. Gary offered to let them test the new liver and onion flavored ice cream (but then fessed up that he was just kidding) but settled on the old stand-by of chocolate and vanilla. Although he bragged that it was the best ice cream ever, our 4-H'ers said it was truly awesome!

After learning about all the different sciences that go into our milk and ice cream we travelled to the North Carolina Natural Science Museum.
There we explored a variety of natural sciences and even attended a special program on alligators. Our youth not only learned about the importance of alligators, and their habitats but why it is important to study creatures of the wild. The best part of the program must have been having the opportunity to pet a young alligator (yes it was very much alive) and learning what it felt like. We learned a great lesson about respecting nature, and why it is important to decrease our carbon footprint and take care of the world around us. Science can help with that.

On the way back everyone was tuckered out as they napped, snored and well entertained the few of us who were awake. Tomorrow is another action packed day as we head to Centennial Campus and the Solar House. Tune in tomorrow to learn about our adventures, fun, and what we learned as we continue our scientific adventure this week.