science club extract dna

Year 7 Science Club is going from strength to strength on the forensic trail, and this week they have been excited to learn all about the technique of DNA extraction.

After a quick tutorial and briefing from Mrs Walsh and Dr Bethell:

It was time for the club to get down to business and put into practice all that they had learnt. Equipped with saline solution, boiling tubes, washing up detergent, dropping pipettes and ethanol, our forensic scientists kickstarted the process of extracting their very own DNA.

This involves swilling your mouth with saline solution:

Before chewing on the side of your cheek VERY CAREFULLY:

And then expelling this into a boiling tube:

Before adding some drops of washing up liquid and slowly adding cold ethanol after 5 minutes.

After completion of this process, it was then time for our scientists to witness their DNA appear before their very own eyes!

Truly exciting and eye-opening stuff, and another amazing opportunity for Year 7 to experience practical science in fun action.

Next week, Dr Richards will head up a scintillating session on blood spatter analysis ... we can't wait!

With huge thanks to Mrs Walsh and Dr Bethell for organising yet more fascinating forensics for our young scientists!