News & Events

BIOSCIENCE HAPPENINGS

CCURI Fall Student Research Colloquium - November 29 - 30, 2018

The 2018 Community College Undergrad Research Initiative Fall Student Research Colloquium took place at Glendale Community College in Arizona. Students Jessica Vallejo and Carlos Cuza, and Dr. Dusti Sloan, were awarded Honorable mention on the poster they presented on behalf of their class they took with Dr. Dusti Sloan as part of the TCC Biotechnology degree program. There were 60+ posters at the Colloquium representing students from Community Colleges from Hawaii to Massachusetts. This is a fantastic award! Congratulations!!

Monarch Waystation - Earth Day 2018

Dozens of students and faculty gathered at Southeast Campus on Friday, April 20 to install a Monarch Waystation near the pond on the southeast side of campus. Organizers were Professors Mary Phillips and Mark Swanson. Although it was a chilly and windy morning, enthusiasm was high, and the product will be enjoyed by future students, as well as the migrating Monarch population. Plants were provided by Grogg's Green Barn at a generous discount, and lumber for raised beds was also provided at little cost from M&M Lumber in Tulsa. KJRH anchor Scott Thompson was also on hand to interview students and organizers for broadcast on Channel 2 in Tulsa.

2018 Biotechnology Extravagana

On Friday, February 23, the TCC Biotechnology department once again hosted a group of high school students from districts such as Union, Drumright, Sapulpa, Oologah, Broken Arrow, and Kellyville for the Biotechnology Extravaganza. Dr. Jim DeKloe returned for a dynamic presentation of "Life and Death Biotechnology". Dr. DeKloe is professor of Industrial Biotechnology at Solano College in San Diego, CA. A host of TCC faculty and students also volunteered to lead workshops, shepherd students, or provide support. Students were engaged and enthusiastic about the labs and presentations. It was a wonderful day of learning for all!

TCC Club of Medical and Natural Sciences at Southeast Campus

This club meets every other Tuesday at 4:30 pm and is a great way to network with other students majoring in a science discipline. The schedule of speakers and activities for January and February is posted at this link: Club of Medical and Natural Sciences Jan.-Feb. schedule.

Dec. 8 GMO Investigations Workshop for Teachers

Fifteen educators gathered in the Biotechnology Lab for a GMO Investigations Workshop, sponsored by OK-INBRE. Each educator was given a stack of kits, supplies, and equipment to take back to their classrooms, worth more than $1000 each. Schools represented included TCC, Oklahoma City Community College (OCCC), and high schools in Morris, Broken Arrow, Pawhuska, Tulsa, and more. Leigh Brown, educator from BioRad, led the workshop. TCC faculty Mary Wells-Phillips and Christine Thompson also presented results of the GMO research their students participated in this semester in their Biology classes.

Goldwater Scholarships Now Available to TCC Students!

Professor Mary Wells-Phillips at Southeast Campus was recently named the TCC contact person for the Barry Goldwater Scholarships and Excellence in Education Foundation. These prestigious scholarships are awarded in March, but the process begins much earlier. Students must apply for the scholarships, up to $7500, and then be nominated by the campus representatives. For more information about this scholarship program, click here, or see Professor Phillips.

TCC Biotechnology Hosted CCURI Lab Methods Workshop May 22 - 24

The biennial CCURI Lab Methods Workshop was hosted at Tulsa Community College, Tulsa, OK and featured concurrent workshop sessions on research projects that can be embedded into community college courses. Presenters included Diana Spencer, Ph.D. and Virginia Balke, Ph.D. (Soil Microbial Ecology); Anne Rosenwald, Ph.D. (Genome Solver); Heather Bock (Barcoding of Insect Parts); Eric Kmiec, Ph.D. (CRISPR/Cas9 Gene Editing); and Darren Mattone (Fresh Water Sponges).

The workshop's aim was to bring together those committed to national STEM education reform from community colleges nationwide. More information on this and other CCURI projects can be found at ccuri.org

Oklahoma Research Day in Enid, OK - March 3, 2017

GFP & Bioinformatics Workshop - February 16 - 17

Eighteen high school, technology center, and college faculty participated in a workshop Feb. 16 - 17 at TCCs Southeast campus. Some of the activities involved isolating Green Fluorescent Protein, running polyacrylamide electrophoresis gels, and using the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI BLAST) system for aligning genetic sequences. Each participant also received $1500 worth of laboratory supplies and equipment to conduct similar labs in their classrooms. Bio-rad educator Leigh Brown conducted the workshop.

Biotech Field Trip

A group of 16 high school Biotechnology students from Stroud recently visited the Southeast campus for a biotech activity, along with their teacher, Ms. Heather Chace. The students had previous experience with pipetting and gel electrophoresis techniques. The activity they participated in at TCC was a Micropipette Accuracy Lab. Janice Airhart, Bioscience Outreach Rep. and Dr. Leann Fiore, Southeast Lab Coordinator conducted the activity with students, who did a tremendous job in accurately using the micropipettes in the lab. Students took a tour of the lab facility and learned about the Biotech degree program at TCC. Each student also received a pair of TCC sunglasses as a souvenir.

TCC Biotech at the Women in Science Conference

On October 11, Bioscience Outreach Representative Janice Airhart and Biotech student Jessica Vallejo hosted a CSI activity at the EPSCOR Women in Science Conference at the Mabee Center. There were nearly 1000 middle and high school girls in attendance, along with teachers and sponsors. Ninety-six booths provided hands-on science activities and program recruitment to the girls on a wide variety of science topics. The TCC booth offered girls a chance to try loading simulated DNA into electropheresis gels and then to solve a crime, using DNA fingerprints. Students who stopped by the booth were enthusiastic and eager to try their hand at practicing skills used in Crime Scene Investigations. The event theme was "Girls Rock Science." It was an appropriate theme, because the high energy of the students really rocked the Mabee Center.

STEM Research Challenge Course - Spring, 2017

Don't be left out of this exciting opportunity! The STEM Research Challenge Course will be offered again in Spring, 2017. The course is an interdisciplinary research-based course with science students (biologists, chemists, microbiology, botany, etc. ) who collaborate on projects with engineering students on NASA focused projects. The course meets on Wednesdays at 3:30 PM. Exact dates TBA.

Contact the instructors below to learn more about the course and sign up, with permission of instructor:
Mary Phillips (Biology- SEC) mary.phillips@tulsacc.edu Tommy Henderson (Engineering- NEC) thomas.henderson@tulsacc.edu Dr. Patrick Idwasi (Chemistry- MC) patrick.idwasi@tulsacc.edu Lance Phillips (Mathematics-WC) lance.phillips@tulsacc.edu Roxann Davenport (Microbiology- WC) roxann.davenport@tulsacc.edu Neil Enis (Microbiology - SEC) neil.enis@tulsacc.edu Dr. Kelly Allen (GIS- MC) - kelly.e.allen@tulsacc.edu

TCC Grad Tonya Dunn Studies Least Tern Population

An August 15 article in the Tulsa World reported on research done by TCC Graduate Tonya Dunn, who now works for the Tulsa District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. She has worked there since 2008 and has surveyed the change in the bird's population and their nesting habits during that time. The article describes the field work she has done to determine whether birds thrive or move on from areas in the Tulsa region in response to environmental conditions like floods or human intervention.

Biotechnology Celebrates 10 Years

The Biotechnology Department celebrated its 10 year anniversary in July by hosting an alumni luncheon. About half of the Biotech alumni attended and enjoyed some great food and an opportunity to catch up with their former classmates. It was fun to see everyone and to hear of their successes.

Restriction Enzyme and GMO Teacher Workshop

Continuing a long tradition of reaching out to area high school teachers and college professors, the Biotechnology Department hosted a day-long workshop on Thursday, July 14 for 14 instructors from the Tulsa area. Leigh Brown, from Bio-Rad Laboratories conducted the workshop, which was funded in part by Oklahoma INBRE and TCC Biotechnology. Attendees also were given a box of lab equipment and kits to take back to their respective schools. The supplies will allow instructors to conduct restriction digest and gel electrophoresis studies with their students.

Dimensions of Science STEM Camp - July 13

During the week of July 11, 30 high school students participated in the first ever Dimensions of Science STEM Camp, organized by Joseph Schnetzer of the TCC Diversity and Inclusion Office. Campers spent the week immersed in various STEM activities, such as cryptography, pyrotechnics, 3-D printing, trebuchet construction, ecology study, robotics, biotechnology labs, and engineering design. Students also learned about planning for college and enrollment processes at TCC. On Wednesday, July 13, the campers spent the morning analyzing some of the flora and fauna of the TCC Southeast Campus grounds with Professors Swanson and Phillips and spent the afternoon extracting their own DNA for necklaces and loading electrophoresis gels.

2016 MASH Camp

TCC again participated in the MASH (Math and Science in Health Careers) Camp this summer, providing two groups of 30 high school students opportunities to immerse themselves in educational or professional settings related to the MASH theme at both TCC and OU Tulsa. TCC's Biotechnology department hosted the students for one-half day on June 15 and again on June 22. Participants learned how to load electrophoresis gels, extract DNA from strawberries, and create a vector for gene insertion. It was a great way to show off the wonderful TCC programs!

TCC's Fabulous Five: NASA JPL Interns

These fabulous five TCC students were selected to participate in a 10 week summer internship at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California.

Students receive travel, meal, lodging, and a $5,000 stipend from Oklahoma NASA Space Grant - Project ur NASA (Undergraduate Research).

(Left to right: Kisa Fors Francis, Zander Holden, Brian Corbit, Alec Schalo, and Tiffany Verlander.)

Oklahoma Research Day - March 11

Nearly 40 TCC students rode the bus to Tahlequah, Oklahoma on March 11 to participate in the annual Oklahoma Research Day, which was hosted by NSU. Several students presented posters from their original research, and many others were present to hear presentations from their peers at dozens of colleges throughout the region. The experience was valuable in allowing students the opportunity to network with other students, with faculty and other dignitaries present at the conference.

"Life and Death Biotechnology" Extravaganza - April 1

About 100 area high school students and their teachers spent the day learning about opportunities in biotechnology and getting their hands on some biotech lab projects! Students extracted straweberry DNA, loaded electrophoresis gels, analyzed DNA banding patterns and learned about the proteomics of the genome. Keynote speaker was Dr. Jim DeKloe, from Solano College in San Francisco. TCC AS graduates Jordan Cox, Brandon Curry, and Alex DeLeon also spoke to students about their experiences in the program.