DP in the Classroom
West High School
Course Biology SL and HL
Cornell University Outreach Lab
In December 2007, DP Biology students at West High became Biochemical CSI investigators and researchers with an assignment to identify a mystery protein. Students from Jennifer Deneka’s Standard Level and Kyla Lester's Higher Level Biology classes participated in this in-house field trip featuring Dr. Michael Yerky, a visiting scientist from Cornell University.
Under Dr. Yerky's direction, the students prepared samples of protein from 11 different land and sea animals, including vertebrates and invertebrates, plus imitation crab and a mystery meat. Their task was to use a minute sample to determine which proteins seemed most closely related. The pea-sized samples of protein molecules were first denatured, causing the large bulky molecules to unfold into strands of amino acids. A process called Protein Gelelectrophoresis was then used, in which the shortest chains traveled fastest with longer chains lagging behind to create a characteristic banding pattern or fingerprint. The gels looked blank until they were stained to make the amino acid bands appear.
The C-PP visit was made possible through the Cornell Institute for Biology Teachers (CIBT) at no cost to the District. DP Biology teacher Kyla Lester is one of a number of C-PP teachers who has participated in two-week, grant funded CIBT summer training workshops in which teachers engage in a number of quality Biology labs and activities. As an added benefit of the program, summer participants have access to the CIBT lending library of equipment and the services of Dr. Yerky, CIBT's Road Warrior and outreach coordinator. He travels throughout much of New York to present CIBT's more sophisticated labs such as DNA Profiling to high school students.
In preparation for the CIBT visit, the classes reviewed the four levels of protein structure starting from the order and type of amino acids in the polypeptide chains, she said. As a post-lab activity, students in both classes completed a lab write-up, including an attempt to guess the identity of the mystery protein which turned out to be buffalo meat.
