In today’s lab we were extracting DNA from two fruits. We used a frozen strawberry, half a banana, rubbing alcohol, salt and soap for our experiment. First we started off by placing our two fruits into two different bags and mixed them with soap water and salt.

We mushed our fruits together and created a substance that looked like this:

Banana———–>

   <———- Strawberry

 

Once we were done we waited around five minutes for the substance to settle down. Once the 5 minutes were over we placed the substance into a test tube along with rubbing alcohol. As we watched these substances, we observed different changes within both fruits.

 

           

 

I learnt a lot from this activity, seeing the strawberry substance turn into a white color and infuse with the rubbing alcohol was very different from anything I’ve ever seen before. After using the hook to reach for the DNA, it looked so cool and it gave me a better understanding of what DNA is and how it looks like.

 

It was important to do this activity not only for the experience but to give us a better understanding of DNA and what is does and how it is produced. For many people experiencing something like this, and actually doing a hands-on activity with a subject as interesting as this is very important and needed. Not only for me, but for other students, I have a better understanding on this self-replicating substance.