Discovering DNA in Year 8
Year 8 extract DNA from kiwis and model its structure.
We have studied inheritance as our last science topic in year 8. We isolated DNA from kiwi fruit, it looks like white strands between the 2 different liquids in the test tube. We followed this up by creating part of a DNA strand using origami; this can be tried at home: https://www.yourgenome.org/activities/origami-dna
DNA is the code for all our characteristics and causes variation in organisms. The likelihood of becoming ill with Covid can be linked to DNA (https://www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-covid-how-dna-genetic-risk-infection-severe-illness). Did you know we share 90% similarity in DNA to our cats! DNA is very important in our lives and very interesting to study!
If you also want to find out more about the science behind Covid, why not take a look at our Science faculty assembly here: The Science behind Covid