We are once again at that time of the year where I find many students becoming uninterested in school and bored by the daily routine of the school curriculum. It is therefore an awesome time to bring some excitement back into learning new things with a fun at home science experiment.
Materials: Banana, plastic Ziplock bag, water, salt, coffee filter, elastic band, cup, dish soap, rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol), stick
Steps:
Put a piece of banana (about ¼ to ½ of a banana) into a plastic Ziplock bag and mash it up until there are no lumps
Add about ½ cup of water and a pinch of salt to the bag and continue to mash it up
Secure a coffee filter over the opening of a cup using an elastic band
Open the plastic bag and pour the banana mixture onto the coffee filter allowing the mixture to go through the filter (about 5 minutes)
Throw away the filter and keep the cup with the filtered banana mixture
Add two drops of dish soap or detergent and swirl the cup gently to mix
Tilt the cup and slowly pour the rubbing alcohol into the container so that it runs down the side of the cup to form a layer on top the mixture (Be very careful to not allow the liquids to mix)
Dip a stick (popsicle stick, plastic utensil, etc.) into the cup and slowly rotate it to create a spool of banana DNA
WAHOOO!!! You have successfully extracted DNA from a banana!
Does the same thing happen if you use a strawberry or even a kiwi? Try it and let me know!