Today’s CAGIS event was done by GENEius was more fun with DNA. The girls got to extract their own DNA and DNA from strawberries; and they got to practice their pipetting technique by making some art. We hooked up with Raquel and Arielle for this session – loads of fun as both Raquel and I were allowed to participate too!
Getting ready for the session:
Swish vigorously with Gatorade (the salts help to dislodge the DNA?), spit into the test tube. Wash with soap, which helps to break the lipids (fats) in the cell walls so the DNA can come free. The DNA eventually clumps – see top right cloudy clump. That’s LL’s DNA 🙂
For strawberries, squish with Gatorade and then strain with soap. Wait for it to float a bit and then fish out the clumps/strings of DNA. The girls got a gram of DNA (weighed by the instructor after drying).
Then some practice with pipetting to make an alligator:
