This article was written by Addison Schliewe
The mixing of chemicals can sometimes turn out to be a beautiful rainbow!
Friday, September 12th, the students of Brian Bollone’s Advanced Placement (AP) Biology first period had a lab where they detected the presence of reducing sugars in a solution with Benedict reagent. When heated, it led to a color change.
People cling onto information in different ways. Some prefer hands-on labs and projects, others old school lectures and worksheets. Bollone hoped students would engage in a lab that highlighted chemical tests.
“To figure out if the different solutions I gave them were mono, disaccharide or polysaccharide. They had test tubes of clear solution and by doing the different chemical tests, they could figure out what they had,” Bollone said.
The effect of the lab on students varied. Senior Beau Holmes was impressed with the connection of all colors and the results.
“I thought it was cool that all the different colors, kind of mixed together, and he [Bollone] even said that he’s never seen that before, which is cool just to see how even with the same lab, you can get different results, just depending on the circumstances of everything else,” Holmes said.
The colors caught a lot of people’s eyes, including senior Erica Nuffer.
“The rainbow stuff. That was so cool,” Nuffer said.
Even Bollone was shocked by the weird rainbow mixture.
“Well, the image I sent you is the first time I’ve ever seen a Benedict test form, like a rainbow in a tester. It’s always just a solid color. And so. I’m not sure why it did that… so I’d have to do some research to find out why we got the distinct layers. I mean, obviously, there’s density taking effect there,” Bollone said.
The lab really dug deep into Nuffer’s understanding and curiosity of Biology.
“I enjoy biology right now. We are on, pre life phase or prehuman. I’m really interested in cells and how cells combine with each other. We were learning about amino acids and protein right now. So that’s really interesting to me because polypeptides are created from peptides, and then that creates water and stuff,” Nuffer said.
After the lab, Holmes stated how he finds his understanding of Biology concepts strengthened.
“Yeah, I think after every lab we’ve done, I’ve just kind of gotten to know a little bit more about how it works and that’s just adding to my knowledge and also just letting me see that it’s applicable to real life circumstances and it’s cool to just see how it all works in a hands on way,” Holmes said.
When it comes to labs or lectures, Nuffer prefers labs.
“I prefer labs because, number one, I just can’t stay focused on Mr. Bollone a lot, and number two, it gives me a hands-on experience,” Nuffer said.
For Holmes, a balance between regular lectures and hands-on labs is the sweet spot.
“I prefer labs just because I think it’s really cool to see how all of that works. Like I said in a hands-on way, but I think both are really important to the subject because we need to understand what’s happening before we just see how it happens and it’s important to see the meaning behind the reaction and stuff like that,” Holmes said.
Northview students are following in the footsteps of the ruler of science himself. Albert Einstein believed in exploring the unknown.
“Look deeper into nature, and then you will understand everything better,” Einstein said.
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