Before my homeschooling days, I worked worked for a company who performed forensic DNA testing. I worked in IT and was always fascinated by all the shop talk, such as "extracting DNA", "polymerase chain rection". Plus, lab techs used expensive lab equipment and processes that took several days to extract human DNA.
However, our family extracted green pea DNA is less than 30 minutes in our kitchen!
It was fascinating and easy.
The link to the specific site is below, but I wanted to share some of our photos. My 5 year old was right there with my teenager during this activity. She asked what DNA was, and we explained it was what determined if we had blue yes or green, if we liked pickles or hated them, if we had long, thin fingers or short, "not-so-thin" fingers.
That simple explanation is all she needed. Yes, there is more to genetics and DNA, but the fact that she now has the word in her vocabulary and a loose definition, will make the concept more approachable as she gets older.
Research has shown that children, especially girls, dramatically loose interest in science from the third grade to the eighth grade. Exposing our children, male and female, to FUN science will help keep the interest level high and the intimidation factor low!
So, here are our photos.
First, we chopped/mixed together dried green peas, water and salt.
Next, we strained this "pea soup" for 5 minutes.
Then, we added 2 tablespoons of dishwashing liquid.
We then let the mixture sit for 5 minutes and filled 2 test tubes 1/3 full.
A pinch of meat tenderizer was added to each tube and stirred. Again, let it sit for 5 minutes.
Next, we tilted the test tubes and slowly filled the test tube with isopropyl alcohol.
The longer we let it sit, the better we could see the strands of DNA. Most of ours were very small strands, but they were there!
Here is the link for this fun and easy activity!
We plan to try this again with different types of cleaning solutions and contact cleaning solution.
Isn't homeschooling fun?!
Michelle
Michelle and her husband have been homeschooling for 9 years. Michelle has a Master's degree in Child Development and Family Studies. She serves as the Judge Advisor for the North Carolina FIRST (www.usfirst.org) Lego League. She is the author of numerous Sam's Science Adventures, including "RIC: Robots in the Classroom", all available through www.TreasureBoxPress.com. She spent 15 years in the biotechnology industry before turning her heart toward home.
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