Students get a hands-on look at UC lab

A day planned by the UC Merced Cellular and Biomolecular Machines Center brought about 75 Merced schoolchildren to the campus on Tuesday to see laboratories, practice hands-on science and even make ice cream by using liquid nitrogen.

Researchers at UC Merced last year won a $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study how biological matter such as proteins or cells come together to perform specific tasks, which led to the establishment of the center.

The research is funded over five years through the NSF’s Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology program.

The center also works with local schoolchildren, high-schoolers and Merced College students to give them an opportunity to study at UC Merced, according to Carrie Kouadio, the center’s executive director.

This story was originally published April 11, 2017 at 4:18 PM with the headline "Students get a hands-on look at UC lab."