Senior Biology Self-Design Experiments
A biology room full of chatter, learning, and growth. This is what our VCE Biology classroom looks like during Senior Biology Experiment week. As two biology students currently undertaking this course, we would like to share some of our experiences with you! A self-design experiment is an area of study within every science curriculum in the VCE. In Biology, which students are able to design a unique experiment relating to the content they have learned.
Hi! I’m Sumairaa and for my Biology experiment, I designed an experiment that explores temperature's effect on bacterial growth. A huge challenge that I’ve encountered was dealing with the agar plates, which are plates on which the bacteria will be grown. I had to make DIY agar plates, using a bunch of different household materials. I’ve learned a lot along the way, including how to create an experimental logbook, how to make a DIY agar plate, and most importantly of all, how bacteria grow! The most exciting part of this experiment would definitely be watching bacteria grow, even though it’s disgusting. With this experiment, I hope to inform and observe the temperatures at which food can be kept, to ensure that bacterial growth is the least contaminated. I’m thoroughly enjoying making progress with my experiment and hope to observe some fascinating results soon!
Hey there, I’m Alice, a Year 11 student studying VCE Biology this year. I have chosen to investigate the effectiveness of tea tree oil compared to a cleaning product you might find at the supermarket. I designed an experiment in which I prepared small paper discs with different concentrations of tea tree oil. I then placed them onto an agar plate and watched them grow. This is called a disc diffusion assay, and it is actually something that researchers use when investigating antibiotic effectiveness. This experiment has given me so much insight into biological research, and it is definitely something I might consider once I finish high school. By investigating this topic, I hope to find an alternative to chemical cleaners from the supermarket, and replace them with something less harmful (and that smells better)!
Thank you to Jan and Greg in the preparation rooms for all the hard work that you have put into preparing our resources for these experiments, we could not have done these without you!
Alice Z and Sumairaa H, Year 11