Students got a taste of a crime scene investigation during an interactive outreach programme as part of Carnegie Mellon Qatar’s biological sciences and computational biology programmes.
The Biotechnology Explorer Programme engages secondary school students through hands-on laboratory experiences while teaching them the science behind the techniques they learn.
During last year’s programme, Carnegie Mellon taught students about their immune system and simulated a disease outbreak among the participants. Students had to determine if they were affected, combining their data back to pinpoint the source of the infection.
This year, when students entered the classroom, they saw a “crime scene,” complete with an outline of the victim’s body on the floor.
From there, the students became forensic experts, collecting DNA samples from both the crime scene and the five suspects. They then broke the DNA into specific fragments using restriction enzymes and used a technique called DNA gel electrophoresis to determine the size of their fragments.
After staining their gels to see the DNA and taking a picture of their gels, they were able to compare the pattern of DNA fragments from the crime scene to see if it matched any of the suspects. A match would indicate they had found the murderer.
Over the past two weeks Carnegie Mellon hosted 60 students from 14 schools across Qatar.
“One of my primary goals with this programme is to get high school students in this region excited about biology. This activity gets them interested in the problem they are trying to solve, and they forgot that they are learning a lot,” said Kenneth Hovis, assistant teaching professor of biology at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar.The Peninsula
