Educational Materials

Supplier: EDVOTEK

Ready-to-Load™ PCR kit introduces students to the principles and applications of the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). This simulation experiment does not contain human DNA and does not require a thermal cycler.

Supplier: EDVOTEK

Infectious mononucleosis is commonly known as the 'kissing disease'. The causative agent is Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), which can be transmitted through saliva during kissing. In this experiment, students search for the presence of EBV using the ELISA reaction to detect specific viral proteins.

Supplier: EDVOTEK

Drinking water is routinely tested for contamination. If a screening tests positive, more sophisticated tests are required. One such test uses PCR in multiplex format. In this experiment, students test for the presence of three separate, classroom-safe organisms in a water sample using a single PCR reaction.

Supplier: EDVOTEK

Genetic modification of plants is a controversial area of biotechnology. All such experiments in plants begin with establishing plant cells in culture. This involves de-differentiating plant cells to form plant 'stem cells'. In this experiment, students establish cell cultures of African violets from leaves. They then use plant growth regulators to encourage root growth from the cultured cells, and produce a mature plant.

Supplier: EDVOTEK

Ready-to-Load™ kit for introducing the use of restriction enzymes as a tool to digest lambda DNA at specific nucleotide sequences.

Supplier: EDVOTEK

In this experiment, students will take on the role of transplant physicians. They will analyze simulated blood samples for transplant compatibility and compare genetic markers to identify which donor is the best match for a leukemia patient in need of a stem cell transplant.

Supplier: EDVOTEK

Students use primers for a 300 base pair Alu insertion in chromosome 16 (PV92) to determine their own genotype. They can then compare their class results with others around the world over the internet.

Supplier: EDVOTEK

ABO and Rh typing of blood left at the scene of a crime can help to narrow down a list of suspects. In this experiment, students use agglutination to identify the blood group of unknown blood samples as a step to identify a criminal.

Supplier: EDVOTEK

Safe drinking water is vitally important to health. Both pathogenic and harmless bacteria can be found in the guts of mammals and birds. Testing water for every possible type of pathogenic bacteria is slow and costly. Thus, water is tested for a characteristic type of gut bacteria - the coliforms - including the familiar E. coli. Presence of coliforms is an indicator for faecal contamination. In this experiment, students test for coliforms in simulated contaminated water using colour and fluorescent reagents. They can use these same reagents to test water samples from the environment. As an extension activity, a Gram Stain test can be performed on the collected samples.

Supplier: EDVOTEK

Using prestained LyphoProteins, subunit molecular weights are determined by analysis using denaturing SDS vertical polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Prestained proteins with unknown molecular weights are assigned molecular weights based on the relative mobility of prestained standard protein markers.

Supplier: EDVOTEK

Observe the differences between mammalian cell types and how these cells funciton. Cells are fixed on microscope slides and students stain the cells on the slide to view morphological characteristics of the cell types. These cells are very safe for classroom use.

Supplier: EDVOTEK

In this experiment, transformed cells take up a plasmid containing the Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) gene. The GFP gene was isolated from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria. Transformed colonies expressing the GFP protein are visibly green in normal light but will fluoresce brightly when exposed to longwave UV light.

Supplier: EDVOTEK

Kit for teaching students how to use a micropipette with ease and accuracy using multi-coloured dyes.

Supplier: EDVOTEK

In this experiment, students see a blue colour change in transformed cells due to the switching on of a gene. The pGAL plasmid gives a blue colour dye due to the production of the β-galactosidase protein by the lacZ gene. IPTG is not required in this experiment since pGAL contains the complete lacZ gene.

Supplier: EDVOTEK

Ready-to-Load™ kit for teaching DNA fingerprinting and to show how DNA evidence is used in modern forensics. This experiment allows for varied results depending on the selection of DNA fingerprinting patterns.

Supplier: EDVOTEK

This experiment introduces chromatographic separation to the class and shows students how dyes of different colours separate on the basis of their size and shape. Columns may be rinsed and reused.