Teachers TV: Primary Science - Part 3 - DNA Fingerprinting

Only one piece of evidence from the post SATs Year 6 CSI Science project is left to be investigated - blood left at the crime scene. The children suspect that analysing DNA from the blood samples could nail the suspect, but is this possible to achieve in the classroom? To give us the basics about DNA and see real science in action Jane Turner, from the East of England Regional Science Centre, gets an exclusive interview with the man who, in 1984, discovered DNA fingerprinting, Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys. Sir Alec describes how his discovery has impacted on society from its first uses in an immigration case and proving Dolly the Sheep was a clone, to solving a double murder, thereby changing police forensic work forever. Back in the classroom Jane and the Year 6 teachers have borrowed secondary science equipment to enable the children to do their own DNA testing using specially prepared samples. Will the resulting DNA fingerprints help solve the school burglary?