Just wanted to thank you for helping us get the DNA model in time for our summer school in July. The twenty base pair model was placed on top of an incubator in the teaching lab and apparently stole the show! Part of the evaluation of the summer school was visual images that represent science and the DNA model was the most popular item!
Visual Images
By far the most popular photo image requested by students in the ‘superlab’ to symbolise science was one of two colourful double helix DNA models which were placed at a high point on top of storage cabinets, “because all the other things could be anything, like goggles could be doctors, computers could be anything, but you see that on TV”. Other objects often requested by students when approached were symbolic of a traditional laboratory, like the “gas taps” although these were a very modern version, “those big bottles and things you get full of chemicals, colours and bubbling” pointing to empty flasks on a shelf, or “those microscopes”. Small bench materials such as ‘test tube things’ were another popular choice. However some students instructed the evaluators to take a photo of their activities “of what we’re doing, that’s what science is about” "