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DNA extraction
General instructions
Your report will be no more than two pages of double-spaced type.
Use the guidelines here and “A guide to presentation of written work in biology” in your SLE111 practical instructions for prac 3
It is due in week 9 on the day of your lecture class.
This report is worth 6% of your unit mark.
Title (0.25 mark)
You are to come up with your own title for your report. It should be brief but still accurately describe your practical.
Introduction (1 mark)
You are required to give 2-3 sentences describing the purpose or aim of the practical.
You are not required to give a detailed background in this report. Note that an introduction would normally require a well- referenced background leading to a justification and aims of the study. You will get the opportunity to prepare a more detailed introduction for scientific reports in other units during your degree.
Materials and methods (marks off if not done)
For this report you do not have to have a detailed methods section. You may simply just state the following for the methods section: “Refer to Cells and Genes Practical Manual 2013, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Built Environment, Deakin University, Pages 42-43.”
Note that this section you would normally provide details on how the experiments were conducted and how the results were achieved and analysed. Again, you will get the opportunity to prepare a more detailed methods section for other scientific reports your degree.
Results (2 marks)
Your results can be split into three sections.
1. Include a description of your extracted DNA sample. Were you able to observe the DNA as it precipitated out of solution, what did it look like?
2. Include a description of your extracted DNA sample under the microscope. Don’t forget to include details of the microscope settings you used. You also need to describe any differences you see between your sample and the controls.
3. On the SLE111 Moodle site will be a picture of an agarose gel containing DNA samples very similar to the ones you extracted. This gel image will contain two molecular weight markers, and DNA samples from strawberry, banana and brain. You must include a copy of the gel picture and describe what you see in lanes 2, 3 and 4. E.g. what does the DNA look like? What size is it (or does it range in size)?
Discussion (2.5 marks)
Your discussion should explain what you see in lanes 2, 3 and 4 of the gel picture in the results section. E.g. why is there no distinct band seen? Where is the DNA?
You also need to answer all the questions from the prac instructions. Do not state these questions and then the answer. A discussion needs to be continuous prose and therefore the answers need to be incorporated into a paragraph of text. Use 1-3 sentences for each answer. You do not need to do in-text referencing here. Note that in a scientific report the discussion would have many references to other sources.
References (0.25 mark)
List any references you used for your report here. Your manual and textbook should be in this list.
