The Double-Helix History project linked up with the Community Engagement programme in the University of Manchester’s Faculty of Biology, Medicine, and Health to visit Webster Primary School for some experiments and creative teaching activities around DNA on 21^st June 2018.

Among other activities, pupils separated DNA from strawberries with just salt, washing liquid, water, and alcohol and we made DNA bracelets for everyone to take home from a pair of pipe cleaners and coloured beads, matching the beads on one “strand” with their opposite colour on another before twisting them into a double-helix.

Really impressive was the level of knowledge of the children, with pupils in each group correctly knowing that DNA is found in all living things and is responsible for making all of us the way we are. As well as learning about the structure of DNA and the millions of possible combinations, Year 6 also got the answers to lots of their fantastic questions, like “if it comes from your Mom and Dad, why am I different from my brother?”, “what happens if it copies wrong?”, “why can one type of base only combine with one other type?”, and “is there DNA in cake?”.

A fun morning for us and Year 6 which has sparked off a number of ideas for future engagement activities, building on DNA knowledge to think particularly about communicating ideas around inheritance, genealogy, and identity.

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