Genes in a Bottle on the cheap

Commercial supply stores have kits that they are happy to sell you for $100 + per class. There's an interesting one called, "genes in a bottle" where you extract your DNA and place it in a microcentrifuge tube tied to colourful thread which you can wear around your neck.

If you wanted to do this at home, there is "shot glass DNA extraction" those uses over-proof rum and other household materials. For the classroom, though, I found an excellent method at about.com: biology. Here’s the link:
http://biology.about.com/library/howto/htdnaextracthum.htm

The method is rated as simple and only takes 15 minutes. The materials are easy to find: small plastic cups (like a medicine cup for rinsing your mouth), small beakers, test tubes with stoppers, distilled water, salt, liquid dish detergent and rubbing alcohol (95% chilled alcohol could be used if that was more plentiful).
Other advantages to this method are that you don’t have to put in an order and wait for it.
If you want to take the extraction a step further so that students can proudly wear their DNA, it can be spooled into an Eppendorf tube which can be tied with colourful thread. These microcentrifuge tubes can be purchased for about $20 for a package of 500. That’s "Cents-ible Science"!

Virtual DNA electrophoresis & make your own!

I am teaching gr. 12 Biology now and I have all kinds of fancy electrophoresis equipment. But that is not really necessary. Many university websites have lots of support for science activities. The University of Utah has a virtual tutorial where you learn to make and pour your own gels. It's fabulous and really reccommended for teachers and students alike. Here's the link:

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/labs/gel/

If you want to make your own electrophoresis equipment with 5 x 9V batteries and a dish soap container attached to batteries with alligator clips, you could save yourself upwards of $2000!

Here's the link!

http://www.nexusresearchgroup.com/fun_science/electrophoresis.htm