BEST

BioEYES Program

During the third week of Term 3 the Year 9 & 10 ‘DNA to Dinosaurs’ class participated in the BioEYES program. This incursion was run by the Monash University Biomedicine Institute over the course of the week and involved our students studying embryonic development and inheritance in Zebrafish.  At the start of the week students were able to observe the early stages of development that contained unspecialised stem cells and by the end of the week we were able to watch free swimming larvae and see structures, such as a beating heart. Students were also able to observe the pigmentation (stripes) develop on their fish and draw a conclusion for their inheritance of this trait. It was a great opportunity for our students to participate in some real-world science and to discuss the current research involving this organism.

I really enjoyed taking part in the BioEyes program as we got to experience the fertilization and growth of zebrafish eggs. Over the 5 day process we studied how the fish eggs developed and eventually hatched into larvae. It was so interesting to use the microscopes to observe the physical changes of the embryos day by day.

Joshua N (Year 10 student)

The BioEYES incursion was an eye-opening experience that allowed us to experience the fertilizations and growth of our zebra fish embryo. This experience allowed us to understand some of the life span over the week. Watching the egg movement as it was developing into larvae was very interesting as you could see the blood pumping through the developing embryos and the heart beating. Under the microscope we could notice things like how developed it was at the time which helped us fill out our workbooks. Overall, it was an amazing experience and it was a fun time! 

Riley T (Year 10 student)

Mr Steve Seddon

Teacher