From detecting DNA to designing a sustainable greenhouse – a celebration of Science

TGS celebrated Science Week with a wide range of activities that included a ‘Four Day DNA Technology Series’ supported by the Royal Society, measuring trees in the school grounds for the Treezilla research project, designing a greenhouse from sustainable materials as part of our Marvellous Meadows Project, building DNA models from sweets, investigating the carbon footprint of the School and taking part in a wide variety of experiments.

Students also created a video celebrating Science at TGS, that was presented during virtual assemblies throughout the week.

Dr Emmanuel, Teacher of Biology and STEM Coordinator, explains more about the DNA Technology Series “Students were provided with guidelines adapted from Hearn, R.P., & Arblaster, K.E, (2010) * for the activities. It was exciting for students to use state-of-the-art equipment such as a UV-Vis spectrophotometer, fluorometer and electrophoresis tank to detect and quantitate DNA from various plant samples such as onion, strawberry, kiwi, banana and leek and such joy to see students actively participating, learning and appreciating new advances in science and technology. My thanks to Year 13 scientists Eve, Edie, Ritika, Mahasana and Catherine who assisted throughout the programme".

*Hearn, R. P., & Arblaster, K. E. (2010). DNA Extraction Techniques for Use in Education. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, 3, 161-166.

I found the session extremely exciting, interactive and practical, as someone interested in Medicine. It developed my knowledge on DNA and its application in the working world.

I thoroughly enjoyed this session and I feel that I have learnt a lot. This definitely makes me further interested in Biology and pursuing forensics!

The experience was absolutely incredible and has really helped me to explore outside of the set curriculum. It has given me an insight into possibilities and opportunities that will be available to me at higher levels of science.

It was a good experience and it was interesting to learn more about DNA and the machines used to process and quantify it.

I really enjoyed the session and as it really helped me visualise our current topic on DNA. It really gave me a taste for what life in a lab is like which is a field that I am interested in going into.