* A free booklet, Discovering DNA: the Recipe for Life, shows teachers and scientists how to run an interactive workshop for 9 to 12-year-olds. Workshops begin by identifying ingredients needed to make a cake - an analogy of the way DNA works as a “recipe for life” inside the cells of all living things.
Children then extract DNA from onions, build an “identikit” cartoon face from different fingerprints and assemble a DNA model to illustrate its role as a chemical code. Produced by the University of Wales, Bangor, and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the booklet joins Discovering Seeds and Plant Growth and Discovering Minibeasts. Details: Tracey Reader, BBSRC schools liaison officer, Polaris House, North Star Avenue, Swindon SN2 1UH, tel: 01793 413302.
The benefits and uses of chlorine and its potential hazards in ozone-damaging CFCs and other chemicals are outlined in Exploring Chlorine (it’s a gas), a book for eight to 11-year-olds written and illustrated by science education team Fran Balkwill and Mic Rolph. Topics include: how chlorine helps to clean water supplies and how chlorine in PVC is used to make drainpipes, bottle, raincoats, computer keyboards and toys. Copies are free to schools; individual copies Pounds 2.99 from: Chemical Industries Association Publications, Kings Buildings, Smith Square, London SW1P 3JJ, tel: 0171 834 3399.
