SCIENCE

pGLO INVESTIGATION IN YEAR 12 BIOLOGY

The annual pGLO experiment took place on the last day of our very short third term as part of the Year 12 Biology course at McKinnon. The experiment involved comparing the growth and glow of four plates of bacteria (that either did or did not contain an ampicillin resistant plasmid) when presented with ampicillin. 

This was an especially fun experiment as we were allowed to ‘play’ with very expensive micropipettes which was a very new technique to the majority of biology students. As all students worked very hard to successfully complete the experiment, everyone was very eager to see their results. So, it was a delight to see a plate of brightly glowing bacterial colonies on the benchtops.

In this experiment the usual classroom prac was taken to the next level, there was an emphasized importance on the sterile environment, with the use of a bunsen burner and pipettes. The classroom was comparable to a professional science laboratory with constant sanitisation after every step.

Overall, the method to this experiment will be forever etched into our brains due to its general relevance in the study design and of course because of how great this experiment is.

A big thank you to all our wonderful teachers (Ms Scott, Mr Howe, Ms Tingate & Mr Voorham), and of course the laboratory staff.

Tayla and Zoe Fischer and Remi Van Denderen

Year 12 Students