As part of Frome College sixth form’s science outreach programme, they have run two projects in local schools.
Rebecca Childs, head of faculty for science at Frome College said, “A group of year 12 science students visited Selwood Academy to assist during their STEM week. The project was to extract DNA from strawberries and kiwi fruit. The year 8 Selwood pupils enjoyed being shown extraction and filtration techniques in order to extract the DNA.
“All groups got excellent results and the pupils at Selwood kept the older students on their toes with some challenging questions. It was an opportunity to talk about the role DNA plays in our bodies and how understanding DNA has led to, and continues to lead to improvements in medical science.
“Our second project was with reception children at Hayesdown School. This time we had a Christmas theme – we did chromatography with different inks and turned the pretty patterns into snowflakes. The children were fascinated to see how the different felt tip pens were made up of so many colours, they also were pretty good at saying ‘chromatography’ by the time we left.
“It is wonderful to see Frome College year 12 science students interacting with children of varying ages, and sharing their love of science, hopefully inspiring the next generation of scientists.”
