In the coming weeks, freshmen taking Advanced Biology will get the opportunity to catch a teacher red handed in a DNA fingerprinting lab.

“The DNA Fingerprinting Lab is a mock simulation of watching how DNA fingerprinting can occur,” teacher Deana Cowger said. “So students take samples and they put them on a gel, and then run it in a gel electrophoresis. And it simulates the DNA fragments being separated. And the lab is set up as, like, a criminal investigation, so students are going to solve a crime with the lab.”

Students in Advanced Biology have been exploring DNA and molecular biology the past few weeks and while some students in other classes have already done this lab, students in Cowger’s class will get the chance to apply what they have learned about DNA and DNA fingerprinting at the end of the semester, just days before winter break starts. 

“It’s real world application. We studied about DNA fingerprinting with a lecture,” Cowger said. “And, it’s useful to have, like, a hands-on experience and see it actually in action.”

In this lab, students must compare DNA samples to solve a crime regarding teachers on campus.

“I’m always excited every time I do this lab, because the students have to solve a crime, and they have to apply the results that they’re seeing to try to figure out what possibly happened,” Cowger said. “It’s also a little bit fun, because the characters in the scenario are teachers here on the campus. And so it’s just fun to see the kids, like, hash out who they think possibly committed the crime, that’s the Mystery Crime that they’re going to be solving.”

For students, getting to apply what they’re learning in class makes this lab exciting.

“I’ve read about it, but I can’t really imagine it,” freshman Julia Blois said. “And we’ll be able to actually see it.”

And the opportunity to mimic professionals in the field makes it all the more fun.

“The thing that I’m most excited about in this lab is that, like, we get to be real detectives, and, like, experience how they do it in real life,” freshman Samriddhi Parashar said. “And like, it’s always a new experience to learn this stuff.”

But perhaps most importantly, to both students and Cowger, seeing science come to life is the most important part.

“I want them to have the hands-on experience of completing it and watching gel electrophoresis happen and for them to have to apply the things that they’re going to see in the lab, too,” Cowger said. “Because they’re still going to be solving a mystery like a crime. And, like, forensic scientists actually have to do this out in the real world. And so, I think it’s just super neat for students to actually see content come alive with a hands-on experience.”