Murder Mystery Solved!

Last Thursday and Friday Rooms 8 and 14 took part in a forensics and genetics workshop run by the Forensics department at the Otago University. 

The first thing we saw as we walked in was a crime scene with a "body" guarded by the "police". Our first challenge was to solve the crime! We were in the biochemistry lab where we had workstations set up to practice using the equipment we would need. Once we were trained with the special techniques needed, we then had samples of DNA from the four suspects to match to blood found at the scene. We carefully placed samples of DNA into a special gel which then had an electrical run through it to separate the DNA strands. This was left for an hour before we then took our samples upstairs to view under a special UV light before a photo was taken of the results. From this we could match the DNA to the blood at the scene and work out who did it!!

The next part of the morning involved looking at fruit flies and all of their adaptations and genetic mutations. We had a number of activities to complete to be the first team to discover the mutations under the microscopes using information they had for us and comparing the mutated flies to the original. The flies were sedated with ether to allow us to view them under the microscopes.

Both classes had a great time working in the lab with the scientists and students at the university and it tied well into our current Health and Science unit on Genetics.