If you drove down Lowder Street during the week of April 8-12, you might have noticed a conspicuous bus parked in the UA parking lot. But it wasn't your average school bus: it was the Boston University Mobile CityLab!
UA biology students had the opportunity to act like real scientists when the BU Mobile CityLab spent a week parked right here at Ursuline Academy. The Boston University Mobile CityLab is a 40-foot long traveling science laboratory operated by the Boston University School of Medicine. The CityLab's mission is to increase community access to modern-day biotechnology and is specially designed for grades 7-12 teachers and their students to participate in hands-on laboratory experiments.
Each class got a chance to go inside for a few hours and do an experiment. The state-of-the-art materials in the Mobile CityLab enabled our students to do lab experiments that they would not otherwise have been able to do in our labs here at UA.
The students used their knowledge of DNA structure and function to help solve a fictional crime scene and also learned new laboratory skills, including how to use micro-pipettes, gel electrophoresis boxes, centrifuges and more. The girls also got a chance to see how DNA fingerprinting can be used in crime scene investigations and historical discoveries.
Watch some of their lab experiments in action in this photo slideshow:
Special thanks to science teachers Mrs. Lisa Collins and Mrs. Taryn Surabian '03 for helping bring the Mobile CityLab to Ursuline.