PCC Instructor Never Leaves NC to Teach New Jersey Students

By: Press Release | WNCT
Published: April 10, 2008

   WINTERVILLE—It’s not everyday an instructor in North Carolina lectures a class in New Jersey without ever leaving the Tar Heel State.
   But that was the case this spring as modern technology enabled Pitt Community College biology instructor Tammy Atchison to share her knowledge of the field with a general microbiology class at Bergen Community College in Paramus, N.J.
   Utilizing specialized equipment at the BioNetwork Bioprocessing Center in Greenville, Atchison was able to communicate one-on-one with the New Jersey students, albeit with a slight time delay.
   “Sometimes, I can hear myself speak in the classroom at Bergen,” Atchison said. “So you have to learn to speak slowly and give someone an opportunity to interrupt with a question.”
   Atchison said she enjoyed teaching the Bergen class. “It’s nice to interact with a different group of students,” she said. “You have no idea what they might ask you, so you have to be on top of your game.”
   According to Atchison, her guest lecturing experience with Bergen is a recurring favor to longtime friend Marty Lowe, a former PCC science instructor who now teaches at the New Jersey school. The two met as biology students at East Carolina University, she said.
   “Marty’s microbiology specialty is immunology and mine is virology …,” Atchison said. “So, in the spring, when our schedules allow, she has me lecture to her class about viruses and some of my clinical experiences.”
   Virology, says Atchison, is a specialized lab area requiring highly technical skills in order to properly diagnose viral infections. She said a portion of her microbiology lab course at PCC is dedicated to touring Pitt County Memorial Hospital’s lab to learn about specimen collection, testing, and diagnosing infectious diseases.
   According to Lowe, Atchison’s lecture offered her students “a glimpse into the importance of a well-run (hospital) lab” and made them more aware of the differences between viruses and bacteria.
   “As health care professionals, the students have to know not only which diseases are viral and bacterial but they have to understand that the different diseases must be treated with different chemotherapeutic agents as well,” Lowe said.
   Atchison said she felt the students also benefited from the realization that students from other schools are learning the same information they are.
   “They aren’t isolated,” she said. “This is not just a requirement to get through their program; this is a worldwide topic we all deal with.”