WCC to Start New Grant-Funded Programs

Wilkes Community College will be developing two new programs with the help of a 28-thousand dollar Bio-Network grant. Trustees learned this week about the grant, one of two the school is receiving. The first is a course for regular students to learn the proper way to test seeds for purity and germination, learn to conduct lab experiments in which they excise embryos and utilizing tetrazolium testing and the study of seed anatomy and metabolism. The second course will be offered through continuing education and will be designed for extension agents, forestry personnel, and nursery growers. Grant funds will also be used to develop some distance education components.

The program committee announced that WCC received two Bio-Network Grants totaling $64,050. The second grant is for micro propagation collaborative database research and development grant, and is worth about 36-thousand dollars. It will be used to further develop a database that was started last year in collaboration with Haywood, Mayland, and Southeastern community colleges.