Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research

The ATAR Human Biology students were lucky to have COVID restrictions eased in time for their scheduled excursion to Harry Perkins Institute. The SCASA Year 12 Human Biology syllabus requires us to “conduct investigations, including the use of virtual or real biotechnological techniques of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and gel electrophoresis for deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequencing”. This isn’t a lot of fun to learn from a text book and uses some very expensive equipment, therefore travelling to the BioDiscovery Centre provides a valuable hands-on learning experience for our students.

The excursion was slightly different this year, we travelled to Perth on Monday, 20 July after school to stay in student accommodation in the city. We were able to enjoy a lovely dining experience together on Monday night before heading to Harry Perkins in Subiaco the next morning. Thank you to Collgar Wind farm for their support by funding the cost of the bus trip to/from Perth.

“The experience was amazing, seeing all of the equipment in the lab was very interesting. I also liked the double-helix stairway in the building, it was creative and ironic as we were in a DNA lab” – Tom Boulton

“It was an eye-opening, interesting experience being able to go into a working laboratory and use different equipment that isn’t available to us in a school laboratory” – Bridget Dixon

“The Harry Perkins excursion was very helpful in strengthening my desire to follow my future career path into immunology” – Hollie Ashton

“It’s interesting learning everything at school, but it’s even better when you put your knowledge to the test and into practice in a real situation” – Kaley McDonnell