Pennsylvania College of Technology’s natural sciences department recently made two donations in support of local educational programs. Part of the School of Business, Arts & Sciences, the department focuses on inspiring students to wonder and be amazed by the world around them through three major curricular areas: biology, chemistry and physics.
Donations to Muncy Junior/Senior High School and Camp Susque have expanded the reach of the Natural Sciences Department to allow young students to understand why things behave in a certain way, and to link observation with prediction.
The donation to Muncy High School included approximately 100 jars of preserved biological specimens, including small mammals and nonmammals like earthworms and other annelids, crayfish and other crustaceans, and assorted invertebrates; a gallon of preservation solution; six Conquest of Pangea board games; and three Davis Mark 3 Marine Sextants.
Camp Susque received 116 items, including field books, cloth collecting bags, insect collection boxes, stream water samplers and stream nets. The materials are expected to be used for hands-on activities for youth camps and educational programs.
Carly L. Herman, Penn College chemical hygiene officer, said the donations were identified as unused equipment and materials during a clean out of the department. Professional science tutor Marcia G. Brauning, who has a background in marine biology, is a volunteer with Camp Susque, and she expressed interest in utilizing the equipment.
“The items had originally been part of a now-discontinued environmental science program,” Herman added.
The preserved specimen collection that was donated to Muncy High School was done so through a connection with Kindra L. Brelsford, an adjunct biology instructor at Penn College who teaches at the high school, in support of its science department. The Penn College department soon will donate frog dissection models and spectrophotometers to further support the biology and chemistry courses at Muncy High School.