Victoria
VG&M Summer Science Club
Five members of the Centre for Proteome Research ran the first of six science club sessions hosted at the Victoria Gallery & Museum. The session was entitled “Beyond the Cell” and was attended by 13 students aged between seven and 10. We started out the afternoon by introducing the students to the concept of our DNA being stored in the nucleus of our cells – to accompany this idea the students extracted DNA from strawberries and made DNA models from sweeties. We then talked about DNA being the code for proteins and how there are different types of proteins in our bodies. The students matched descriptions of proteins to the types of “sample” were that protein might be found. We also used jelly beans to demonstrate how different amounts of proteins, or the presence of a new protein, could help us to diagnose a disease. To round off the afternoon the students tried out three different analysis techniques – testing the pH of household solutions using red cabbage indicator, running dyes and inks on paper chromatography, and measuring the travel time of differently weighted marbles on a model mass spectrometer. We really wanted to encourage the students to ask as many questions as possible and try to think like scientists, any they absolutely loved the hands-on activities, especially those involving sweets!
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Back at the VG&M! Summer Science Club!
Every year the Victoria Gallery and Museum at the University of Liverpool hosts a Summer Science Club with a session per week for six weeks. Each session is hosted by a different group from the University and four members of CPR volunteered to host a Proteomics session. There were 12 students aged nine to 11 who attended the two hour session, having a go at hands-on activities all centered around DNA, proteins and diagnosing diseases.
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Judging at the Big Bang
Continuing on from the success of previous years, All About STEM again hosted the North West heat of the Big Bang competition at the Echo Area. The turnout of students and the quality of projects presented was fantastic, making Victoria Harman’s job as head judge very difficult indeed. The hard work of the students was abundantly clear and some brilliant projects were put forward for the finals.
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Winstanley STEM day
For the second year running, a group of staff and students from CPR presented multiple activities, information and answered questions at Winstanley College’s STEM day. Two members also hosted an SDS-PAGE workshop where students, in groups of 3 or 4, where instructed in how to run SDS-PAGE gels, and were able to analyse their own samples.
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Victoria judging the Big Bang NW 2015
Victoria Harman was one of four head judges for the North West heat of the Big Bang competition, hosted by All About STEM..
Winstanley come to visit
Filed in: Winstanley
Four students from Winstanley College visited our laboratories in the Centre for Proteome Research, University of Liverpool. The students had prepared some samples in their college science lessons and during their visit they were shown how to analyse the samples using one of our Mass Spectrometers. The students were given a tour of the lab and an introduction to Proteomics by the group leads, before participating in some hands-on activities.
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