In May 2019 Sara Filoche and Claire Henry visited Year 10 Students at Wellington High School to introduce them to some current Biotechnology and Genetics techniques. Sara is a Senior Lecturer, Department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Women's Health, Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at University of Otago, Wellington. Claire is a Research Fellow in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Women's Health. Sara and Claire brought equipment, chemicals and gels to carry out a range of genetics experiments. This type of material is well beyond what any school laboratory would have. With their help the students ran a gel to see band patterns for inheritance of sickle cell anemia. Students got to use expensive micro pipettes and load a gel which ran for a couple of hours, then stained it with non-carcinogenic dyes. They explored SNP data from 23&Me to investigate the concept of genotype and phenotype. Students looked at Mitosis in onion cells, extracted DNA from strawberries and studied Pedigree drawings to discover hidden patterns of inheritance.
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You can read about Sara's other work with Kura at the links below.
- University and Kura experiment with science in te reo Māori (Scoop Contacts)
- Kura students get teeth into science (Waatea News.com)
- Learning science in te reo Māori (Māori ki UOW)
- Sparking a love for science in kura kaupapa Māori students (Otago Bulletin Board)