Education Outreach

Morning Session: Bringing DNA to the Classroom

Zuzana Zachar discussed changes in the National Education Standards, the Teacher Training program at Stony Brook, and an overview of the DNA workshop.	Pat Bossert discussed the importance of hands-on activities that elicit inquiry-based learning.

Judi Heitz described the program at her school: Biotechnology in the Secondary School.	The first experiment involved isolating DNA from fruit flies. Here, a student is grinding dead fruit flies in a buffer solution.

After grinding, INSTAGENE^TM beads are added to the tube to bind proteins and lipids.. Dr. Bossert is explaining the principle of INSTAGENE^TM beads: the beads are made of a negatively charged matrix. Proteins and lipids are mostly positive and therefore will bind to the beads. DNA remains in the supernatant.	Tubes are placed in the thermocycler that is set at 65 C and incubated for 10 min. The cycler is then set to 99 C and the tubes are incubated for an additional 10 minutes. The heating steps are used to break open the cells and to denature proteins. Denaturation caused the proteins to dissociate from DNA.

After heating, the tubes are allowed to cool and the beads are allowed to settle out. The supernatant, which contains the DNA is pipetted to a fresh tube. Here, Dr. Zacher is demonstrating how to use a micropipettor.	Students are practicing pipetting.

10 ul of DNA solution is mixed with a blue dye and then loaded into wells of an agarose gel. The gel is placed in an electrophoresis chamber and subjected to electric current which separates the fragments of DNA.	The bands in the photo show the different DNA fragments...........
Student Presentations




Afternoon Session: Plant Tissue Culture in the Classroom

Dr. Ken Torres gave an overview on plant tissue culture.	Dr. Carol Stiff gave a presentation on how to do plant tissue culture in the classroom using inexpensive equipment.

Using simple equipment such as plastic pitchers, pint jars, dish detergent, commercial bleac, Dr. Stiff showed how to disinfect African violet leaves.	Following the demonstration, students disinfested leaves and cultured them on media.

Students are preparing disinfested leaves for in vitro culture.	This student got to use a "clean box" for his experiments.

Dr. Michael Kane gave an overview of the plant tissue culture program at the University of Florida including his upcoming workshop for K-12 teachers.	Here a student is transferring internode sections of Parrot feather to media containing hormones.

This is an internode section of Parrot feather.	This internode section has been cultured for 5 days on media containing plant growth regulators. Note the new shoots developing - this is called organogenesis.
This workshop showed how biotechnology techniques, DNA isolation and analysis, and plant tissue cultue, can be accomplished in a high school classroom with inexpensive equipment and supplies, safe chemicals, and minimal training. The student presenters proved that these techniques can be utilized in the classroom and can be easily accomplished by the students. These techniques encourage inquiry based learning at the high school and college level.

Educational Outreach Program