RBC AP Bio Students Partner with Research Supply Company

Bio-Rad Laboratories of California has invited Red Bank Catholic to partner with them to test newly-designed lab kits in the developmental stage for potential use by AP Biology classes throughout the country. Recent changes to the AP Biology course implemented by the College Board have resulted in the need for more updated lab kits to be manufactured by scientific research supply companies. The redesign of the AP Biology course work is geared to assess understanding of biological principles, content and concepts in combination with science practices. To that end, the scientific supply companies now need to generate new products that will accommodate schools’ needs.

According to RBC AP Biology teacher Mrs. Mary Jane Davis, “Many of the supply companies had been selling the same lab kits for the past few decades. They now need to generate new products geared more towards scientific practices and are far more inquiry based.”

To test the Bio-Rad kits, RBC AP Biology students successfully transformed bacteria with a gene from a jellyfish so that it glowed green under UV light. Mrs. Davis explained that “the students then worked in groups to design their own experiments to determine factors that influence that process.” Senior Ralph Tancredi explained how his group “tested the mutation of bacteria to see how it reacts to variables that may try to change it, like antibiotics.” Students came up with their own hypotheses to test, wrote procedures and materials lists and documented their experiments so that students in other classrooms would be able to one day recreate them using the same kits.

Mrs. Davis provided detailed information about the experience along with the unique experimental designs to a Bio-Rad product manager. The company sent a complimentary kit that next year’s students can use and invited Red Bank Catholic to participate in their spring field test which will study photosynthesis.