Junior Double Helix Club

Is your young scientist curious about DNA, biology, and the amazing world inside living things? The Junior Double Helix Club is a series designed especially for students currently in grades 4 & 5 who want to build their lab skills and confidence.

Across nine Saturday sessions, students will perform exciting experiments, develop foundational skills like micropipetting and microscopy, and discover how biology connects to the world around them. Whether it’s their first time in the lab or a warm-up for Fun with DNA camp, this series will spark curiosity for the summer ahead and beyond! Attend all nine sessions or choose any three that you'd like!

Junior Double Helix Club Sessions:

🧬 Session 1: Secrets of Ötzi the Iceman (Saturday, January 10)
Explore the story of Ötzi the Iceman through our museum exhibit and learn how DNA helps scientists uncover secrets from the past. Use microscopes to help track Otzi’s last hours using the pollen found in his digestive tract.

⚗️ Session 2: Bubble Trouble! The Power of Enzymes (Saturday, January 24)
Experiment with catalase, an enzyme that makes things fizz, pop, and bubble! Discover how enzymes speed up reactions in your body.

🌈 Session 3: Acid Breath: The Chemistry of Life (Saturday, January 31)
Use bromothymol blue to reveal the hidden chemistry of your breath and see how living things maintain chemical balance. Then, test different fruits and vegetables with baking soda to see which ones bubble, compare reactions, and measure their pH to uncover the chemistry behind it.

🍓 Session 4: Juicy Genes: Fruit DNA Extraction (Saturday, February 7)
Dive into the world of DNA — the universal blueprint that all living things share. Build simple DNA models to explore how bases pair and how genetic information is structured. Then, extract real DNA from fruit and watch the blueprint of life become visible right before your eyes.

🦋 Session 5: Survival of the “Fittest” (Saturday, February 28)
Explore how traits help species survive and evolve through fun, interactive natural selection challenges.

👪 Session 6: Passing It On: The Story of Inheritance (Saturday, March 7)
Learn how traits are passed through DNA from parents to offspring by creating a fruit fly paper doll. Then, examine real fruit flies under the microscope to observe inherited traits in action and see how variation shows up in living organisms.

💡 Session 7: Cracking the Code: From DNA to Proteins (Saturday, March 14)
Decode how DNA instructions become proteins — the molecules that make life happen and create traits! Then, use this process to decode a secret message.

🎨 Session 8: Agar Art: Petri Dish Picasso (Saturday, March 21)
Combine art and microbiology as you paint with living bacteria to create an agar masterpiece and learn how scientists use genetic modification to create new colors and traits. Then try a micropipette “watercolor” activity to practice precision while making vibrant art.

💧 Session 9: Life in a Drop (Saturday, March 28)
Zoom into the hidden world of pond water to discover the tiny creatures and cells that live all around us using compound microscopes.

*Please note that students will become eligible for Fun with DNA camp once they have completed grade 5. Students currently in grade 4 will not be eligible for Fun with DNA in summer 2026.

*In order to join a session as part of a 3-session package, registration must be received before 3:00pm on the day before the session.