Staff and students from the Centre for Free Radical Research showed high school students recordings from live cell microscopy showing human human neutrophils hunting down and engulfing bacteria at the University of Otago, Christchurch's D.A.R.E event last month.
In one movie neutrophils turned red as they produced intracellular bleach in the process of killing the engulfed bacteria.
Students could also look through a microscope and see human neutrophils that have eaten bacteria.
The Centre also demonstrated how white blood cells are separated from whole blood using solutions of different densities.