DNA Extraction

Download the instructional PDF here: DNA Extraction – Bio Lab Stills

1. Obtain a darkly colored sports drink—blue or red works fine. Measure out approximately 15 mL of the sports drink.

2. Swirl that amount inside your mouth for sixty seconds. The longer you swirl the drink in your mouth, the more cheek cells to extract DNA from you will have.

3. Spit the drink back into a small beaker and set aside.

4. Add approximately 0.25 mL of liquid detergent into a small test tube. Depending on the vis-cosity of the detergent you will have to adjust your micropipetting speed.

5. Pour the liquid containing your cheek cells into the test tube with detergent until it is half full.

6. Add a pinch of meat tenderizer to the test tube. (In this experiment, the meat tenderizer is acting as an enzyme).

7. Shake the test tube vigorously to mix the contents. Do this by placing your thumb to cover the test tube.

8. Allow the test tube to sit for ten minutes.

9. Add alcohol— rubbing alcohol or isopropanol will do— to the test tube by dispensing it along the inside of the test tube wall. DO NOT dispense directly into the liquid. If done properly, the alcohol will sit on top of the water. Make sure the layer of alcohol is 2 cm above the layer of drink.

10. Let the test tube sit again for ten minutes. During these ten minutes you should be able to see the DNA precipitate into the alcohol layer.

11. Observe and record your results.

Molecular Diffusion Through Membranes

Download the instructional PDF here: Molecular Diffusion Through Membranes – Bio Lab Stills

1. Obtain one piece of dialysis tubing from your lab instructor.

2. Once you have obtained your tubing, fold the bottom of the tubing upon itself until approximately 1 cm has been folded up.

3. Most likely, the dialysis tubing you obtained will still be stuck to itself. If this is the case, rub your fingers over both sides of the tubing to separate them and create an opening.

4. Carefully measure out 3 mL of the glucose solution provided and set aside.

5. Likewise, carefully measure out 3 mL of the starch solution provided and set aside.

6. Now you may add the 3 mL of glucose solution and 3 mL of starch solution to the dialysis tubing.

7. Tie the top of the tubing to seal it.

8. Add 50 mL of water to a 200 mL beaker. (You may use distilled water or RO water depending on what your instructor has provided).

9. Add 0.2 mL of iodine into the 50 mL of water. (If you are using a 20-200 μL micropipette, be sure to set it to read 200, as seen in the left photo below.)

10. Place the dialysis tube you have created into the beaker of water.

11. The presence of iodine will cause the starch to change colors. If the iodine diffused through the tubing, the starch will appear a shade of blue.

12. Record your observations.

DNA & RNA Microarrays

Download the instructional PDF here: DNA-RNA Microarrays – Bio Lab Stills

1. Obtain a microarray card.

2. Your instructor will have QuickStrips™ or other patient samples for you to dispense onto your microarray card. Obtain four different ones.

3. Apply 5 μl of each sample to the labeled circles for each patient.

4. Repeat for the remaining three patients.

5. Incubate the microarray cards in a 37° oven for 5-7 minutes.

6. Once completed, you may view and analyze your microarray cards using a hand-held UV transluminator. If your instructor allows you to use the UV lights under a sterile hood, you may use that as well.

7. Record your results.

Bacterial Spread (Two Methods)

Production Schedule

The schedule below is tentative and may change due to lab and resource availability.

Week of February 21st: Bacterial Spread (Two methods – video demonstration)

Week of February 28th:  Heart Dissection

Week of March 14th: Molecular Diffusion Through Membranes

Week of March 28th: DNA Extraction

Week of April 11th: Microarray Card

Wilson Bentley (1865-1931)

“Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty; and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be seen and appreciated by others. Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated. When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. Just that much beauty was gone, without leaving any record behind.” -Wilson Bentley

In 1931, Bentley published a book “Snow Crystals” featuring over 2,400 snowflake images. He was the first person ever to photograph a snow crystal. He attached a simple camera to a simple microscope to accomplish this.

 

Thomas D Mangelsen

Thomas D Mangelsen developed an interest for biology at a very young age. His interest was influenced by the times in his childhood he spent outdoors. Being outdoors allowed Mangelsen to observe the wildlife. Birds were what fascinated him the most.

Mangelsen attended the University of Nebraska where he received his bachelor’s degree in biology. His postgraduate studies were zoology and wildlife biology. Because of his background in biology, Mangelsen was able to work with a video crew which allowed him to film whooping cranes for National Geographic. Opportunities such as this led to his success as a videographer and photographer. He produced Cranes of the Grey Wind, a documentary on the life cycle of the sandhill crane for PBS Nature and BBC Natural World.

Mangelsen’s photograph “Polar Dance” was selected as one of the 40 most important nature photographs of all time. He was also named as one of the top 100 most important people in photography.  In 1994, Mangelsen received British Broadcasting Corporation’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award.

Images of Nature: The Photographs of Thomas D Mangelsen, is a book published by biologist Charles Craighead. Mangelsen and Craighead worked together to combine biology and photography into one book.

Mangelsen’s success was due to his background in biology and skills in photography.

Research Analysis

Topic: Biological Photography for Tenth Grade Instruction.

History: Historically, science photography began around the 1880s. Cameras were not as complex in the 1800s and science was not as advanced as it is today.  For this reason, the science photography that took place in those years was very simple. Photography that occurred in the 1800s was as simple as taking a picture to find out how horses moved their legs as they ran. The more “complex” photography of that time period was adapting a camera to a simple microscope to photograph a snowflake and observe the structures. Science photography began consistently in the late 1990s when cameras were becoming more developed, sophisticated, and popular. Science photography began rising as rapidly as camera equipment did and has now become an essential tool to biologists around the world as well as biology students.

Similar efforts to science photography have been conducted by National Geographic, Nikon Inc. and Science Photo Library.

The intended audience for this research is both high school biology lab instructors as well as those students.

Different potential methods of presentation include PDFs, PowerPoint presentations, posters, and this website.

Research Source 1: “Microcosmos: Discovering The World Through Microscopic Images From 20 x To Over 22Million X Magnification.”

One of the leading science photography companies in the world is Science Photo Library. SciencePhoto Library is a source for images and video in fields such as animals, environment, healthcare, space and many other categories. The images provided by Science Photo Library are accompaniedwith helpful captions which address the subject. This source will be relevant to my project because it will allow me to see what type of things can be addressed and how they can be addressed from ascientific point of view.

Research Source 2: http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/

Nikon, one of the world largest visual equipment companies, has been making efforts to visuallyportray microscopic images since the mid 1970s. Nikon came up with a division called “Nikon Small World” to address this area. Each year winners are selected from microphotographysubmissions and a gallery is created by Nikon. Due to the frequency of this contest (annually) andthe number of entries that can be viewed, this source will also be a tool that can be used to observethe work that others have done in similar project areas.

Research Source 3: “Digital Photography in Biology Lab Teaching” by Theodore Gurney, Jr.

Theodore Gurney, professor at the University of Utah, wrote “Digital Photography in Biology LabTeaching” to address the issue and provide helpful insight. In his writing, Gurney presents his work,beginning with equipment all the way through to his techniques for different subjects. Because ofhis detailed writing, he effectively allows his readers to understand what he does on a step-by-steplevel. This source will allow me to understand a more personal account of lab photography inbiology teaching, as well as techniques utilized in this field of photography. http://www.ableweb.org/volumes/vol-23/17-gurney.pdf

Project Proposal

An important course in life, which many high school students fear, is biology. Oftentimes students are intimidated by the overwhelming terminology, intricate scientific processes, and complex biological cycles. One of the ways to aid and ease the learning curve for students is to present them with visual images to accompany the topics they are learning. In order for somebody to effectively do this, they must have a background in both biology and art.

By using photographic skills and the years of studying biology in lectures, labs, and even lab photography, I will be creating visuals to help high-school level students better understand biology.

One of the most recent projects I have worked on was photographing key procedural steps in Marymount University’s Advanced Lab Research Methods course. The experience I gained there will help me in developing this project for high schoolers.

Below are more details about the project:

Title: Visually Presenting Biology to the High School Student

Description: This project will make use of an online page and PDFs to allow easy access for high school instructors.

Intended audience: Tenth grade high school lab instructors.

Purpose: To increase high schoolers’ interest in pursuing science as a potential major and/or career

Objectives: Produce more than one method of presenting biological visuals for the instructors. To facilitate biology learning by presenting visuals to the audience.  Give the audience the opportunity to come up with questions of interest in a more visual aspect.

Creative Strategy: A very high majority of high schoolers are intimidated by their biology course. I believe that one of the ways to eliminate this fear is to help them visually see what they are learning. If they have a mental image for the terminology they are learning, it will greatly help them learn key biological concepts such as “structure relates to function.” The creative strategy will be to provide visuals and explain them, in order to assist the high schooler’s learning.