High school students share knowledge of DNA

By Mairead Todd, News Writing Student

Students at Highland West Middle School in Moore got a chance to demonstrate their recently-acquired knowledge about DNA extraction for elementary students on DNA Day.

The National Institutes for Health and other schools nationwide joined OCCC in celebrating DNA Day on April 25.

More than 1,915 students participated across the state with the help of OCCC’s Biotechnology/Bioinformatics Discovery Project or the BBDiscovery Project.

DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is “the fundamental building block for an individual’s entire genetic makeup,” according to dna.gov.

DNA Day signifies the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003. Project researchers sought to identify the thousands of genes in human DNA and determine the chemical base pair sequences that make up the DNA, according to ornl.gov.

“DNA Day started to celebrate the release of the Human Genome Project and was then called DNA Day,” said BBDiscovery Project Coordinator Dan Bell.

For the BBDiscovery Project it was a day for thousands of students across the state to gain a better understanding of DNA, Bell said.

“You wouldn’t think it, but Oklahoma is very progressive when it comes to scientific research,” he said.

Participating teachers and high school students put together DNA extraction kits and took them to area elementary and middle schools.

Each team then provided demonstrations to the younger students as the main part of DNA Day celebrations.

Teachers who have completed the BBDiscovery professional trainings led most of the activities.

Teacher Brandi Williams’ Advanced Placement biology class participated in the celebrations.

Her class used salt, soap and papain, or meat tenderizer, to extract DNA from wheat germ, Williams said.

They received their kits from the BBDiscovery project.

“It’s been wonderful,” Williams said.

“We’re at a junior high so we don’t get the fancy equipment that high schools are getting.”

Not including the DNA extracting her students did on DNA Day, Williams’ students have already completed two other biotechnology units.

DNA is very abstract, so for students to actually see what it is and how to manipulate it really helps when teaching, Williams said.

There were dozens of additional activities provided for teachers to do in their classrooms during the day of celebration.

Both the BBDiscovery Project and the National Institutes for Health provided a variety of special activities, including DNA extraction experiments, live webcast demonstrations, and live webcast lectures from leading DNA researchers.

This is a grassroots effort to get teachers involved in recruiting students to spread the word about biotechnology, Bell said.

The BBDiscovery Project and DNA Day are opportunities not only to spread the word about biotechnology, but to recruit a new generation of scientists for the growing industry, Bell said.

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