UHI Shetland at Shetland Science Fair

A number of UHI Shetland staff were involved at the Shetland Science Fair this week, with support from the Royal Society of Biology.

A number of UHI Shetland staff were involved at the Shetland Science Fair this week at Clickimin. The purpose of the event was to bring STEM learning all under one roof to over 300 S1-3 pupils across Shetland. UHI Shetland staff delivered informative STEM activities such as ‘Workshop in eDNA, MTa Kit, Sphero robots, Micro:bits and the Virtual Reality Aquaculture Simulator.

The eDNA activity was funded through a successful grant application to the Royal Society of Biology. The Royal Society were keen to support the youngsters learning how DNA analysis contributes to biodiversity research and conservation efforts. Pupils were able to explore molecular techniques and extract their own DNA using commercially available Bio-Rad Genes in a Bottle kits. They then learned about the processes involved in amplifying DNA and explore the usefulness of DNA sequencing in the context of environmental DNA (eDNA) for species detection and classification with resources available to take home.