Nearly all students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education.
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For many of our students they have never had the opportunity to experience a real world laboratory experience. Running a bacterial transformation lab is expensive so students don't get this experience unless they major in the sciences in college, or perhaps attend a private school. We know however that many students will not major in the sciences because they have never had experiences that show them how exciting of a career they can have.
Performing the bacterial transformation lab is one of those experiences that even if you don't love science you will never forget it, and will always talk about it as one of those "best moments" in school. The Bacterial Transformation Kit is the classic kit for teaching the central dogma and the basics of genetic engineering. Students transform common bacteria, normally killed by antibiotics, with a plasmid containing DNA that will confer antibiotic resistance. Students calculate efficiencies of transformations and investigate factors that might alter the effectiveness of transformation. This lab illustrates the basic processes of genetic transformation, gene expression, and natural selection.
About my class
For many of our students they have never had the opportunity to experience a real world laboratory experience. Running a bacterial transformation lab is expensive so students don't get this experience unless they major in the sciences in college, or perhaps attend a private school. We know however that many students will not major in the sciences because they have never had experiences that show them how exciting of a career they can have.
Performing the bacterial transformation lab is one of those experiences that even if you don't love science you will never forget it, and will always talk about it as one of those "best moments" in school. The Bacterial Transformation Kit is the classic kit for teaching the central dogma and the basics of genetic engineering. Students transform common bacteria, normally killed by antibiotics, with a plasmid containing DNA that will confer antibiotic resistance. Students calculate efficiencies of transformations and investigate factors that might alter the effectiveness of transformation. This lab illustrates the basic processes of genetic transformation, gene expression, and natural selection.