St Faith’s trip to the Babraham Institute

On Friday 17^th November 6F (Science) class went on a trip to the Babraham Institute, where we reviewed our recent topic on cells.

When we arrived Dr Becky Gilley showed us into the Cambridge Building. In the room we were asked to sit down and the scientists introduced themselves and handed around the two worksheets which we were to complete throughout the afternoon. They then explained what we would be doing and split us up into three groups (because there were three activities).

Firstly, my group went on a tour of the labs and we went into one of the imaging rooms and Becky and Simon (the Imaging Facility Manager) showed us some cells using a £100,000 microscope! They also showed us how they use a special dye called ‘fluorescein’ to label different organelles – the best colours to use are green and red.

Next, we went to look at different cells under the microscopes set up in the room with Hanneke and Emma. If we thought what we saw through the microscope looked interesting we could take a photograph using a computer linked to the microscope.

The last activity was run by Dr Laetitia Chauve and she showed and told us all about C. Elegans (which are like mini-worms) and how they changed when they became mutant!

Then at the end we reviewed what we had learnt and gave Simon, Becky, Laetitia and Emma a tin of biscuits to say thank you. They also had a really cool well near the toilets, which was covered in glass so we could walk on it!