April 25th is known as National DNA Day, and the science department at T.C. Roberson High School (TCRHS) celebrated the day with a guest speaker.
Owen Canterbury is a pharmacology graduate student at UNC Chapel Hill. Teachers Randi Baldwin and Emily Charette invited Mr. Canterbury to give a presentation and lead the students in a DNA and molecular biology activity in the school’s media center.
“Mr. Canterbury gave a presentation on epigenetics which is a relatively new field of study in which scientists are learning how the environment can influence the expression of genes,” said Ms. Baldwin. “Students also did a lab in which they extracted their own DNA from their saliva and pulled it out of solution--it looks like a clear booger. The other activity they did was a genes game where they decided genes that were turned on or off and they had to figure out who was the healthier twin.”
Part of the content for high school biology is focused on genetics. Mr. Canterbury was able to provide real life examples to help the students understand why this is important research.
“Mr. Canterbury uses this information to manipulate genes into gene expression and see what impact that has on an organism,” Ms. Baldwin explained. “This is important in research for new pharmaceutical practices and medicines--we have several students interested in going into pharmacology, biology, and medicine.”