Concocting Curiosity through a Lecture in Chemistry
Words by: Gerard Michael Mirande
A metallic machine sat in the middle of the lecture hall in front of onlooking students at Labrador Hall. To the younger students of the University coming in, seeing people tinkering with the instrument and testing must have been the strangest thing in the room.
A lecture discussing the theoretical know-how behind experiments and hands-on practical experimentation was conducted by the Department of Chemistry at the Labrador Hall yesterday, March 28. Mr. Kent Caesar Gervacio, MSc, a faculty member from the Department of Chemistry, together with senior chemistry students Matthew Herrera and Julianne Reyes, served as the speakers of the said lecture which 60 junior and senior high school students of UST participated in.
After a crash course in the general field of chemistry, Mr. Gervacio discussed how Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) works and how to perform an Agarose Gel Electrophoresis, which uses an electric current to separate segments of DNA to analyze its makeup. After the discussion, Mr. Gervacio and the senior chemistry students directed the audience’s attention to the apparatus at the center, which was an Agarose Gel Electrophoresis instrument, to demonstrate how it works by separating DNA segments along the surface of the gel.
The high school students weren’t left out of the fun either because they were given the opportunity to handle the experiments themselves. Thirteen volunteers stepped up and tried their hands on the electrophoresis apparatus, with the senior chemistry students guiding them on how to use basic laboratory equipment.
While the electrophoresis tank was separating the DNA, Mr. Herrera and Ms. Reyes took the podium and shared their experiences about their journey from being freshmen to senior students in the laboratory.
Since the pandemic happened in the middle of their college time, they had a noticeable gap in their laboratory experience. Mr. Herrera reminisced about his first time in the laboratory out of the pandemic: “Nahirapan ako sa paglagay ng sample sa well, at natusok ko ang gel…’di maganda ang resulta.” However, that initial hardship gradually subsided, and as he said, “That struggle is normal for the first time, but you get better as you go.”
Being in the field of chemistry is a grueling task for the students of the College of Science since there is a lot of memorization and formula involved, and this could affect someone into falling into the trap of hyper-focusing on those alone. We often think of chemistry in the language of formulas and diagrams, but half of the field of chemistry is in the gloved hands and color-changing vials of the laboratory. As succinctly said by Mr. Gervacio, “Chemistry is not just in the memorization of elements.”
After 30 minutes in the electrophoresis tank, it was revealed to the audience that what used to be a dark blot at one end spread out onto the gel, thereby forming a closely-bound cluster of intermittent bands of fluorescent DNA. The results weren’t exactly ideal for identifying DNA, but it showed the students how chemistry is done and made: by improving on shaky technique and proficiency to be better scientists than yesterday.
