Forensic Science intrigues all persons of different ages and stages in life. As such, we thought it would be exciting to have our STEPS secondary students extract DNA from fruit using household items and solve a Zombie Apocalypse using cutting edge techniques to track the outbreak of a fictitious Zombie Virus. These two experiments allowed for all 80 students enrolled in the workshop to interact with each other, promoting inter-school interactions. All in all, they were excited to exact DNA and view it under microscopes and also simulate the break out of a Zombie Apocalypse and discover who in the room was the originally “infected” individual.
Here are some student reactions from their afternoon with us!
What was their favorite activity?
Students were split between extracting the DNA and solving the Zombie Apocalypse. They absolutely enjoyed interacting with the students from other schools while taking on the role of a forensic analyst.
We surveyed the students and these are a few examples of what they had to say.
“My favorite part was looking in the microscope for the DNA because in the future I would love to become a forensic scientist and I actually felt like a scientist today”
“My favorite activity was when separate the DNA from the banana because I learned that every fruits we eat has DNA in it.”
“The Human Zombie Virus because it was exciting and I got it to change color so I was a zombie”
“The zombie apocalypse experiment because it showed how one person can infect an entire population”
Overall students left with a feeling of accomplishment and a renewed or continued passion for learning. We are thrilled to know that when asked, after doing experiments today would you be interested in becoming a scientist, students had comments like this to say:
“Yes, it widen knowledge and make us aware of things we might cannot see clearly with our naked eye without adding chemicals or using tools/ apparatus.”
“Yes, because being involved in any field of science helps you to analyze and reason out factual information and make your own opinions”
We continue to excite and educate these young minds gearing them towards a future possibly in a career in STEM!
Source: www.globalgiving.org
