01/09/2026
Sorry for the late notice about tonight's meeting ... the holidays got busy. If you or your kiddo are interested in horses, join us at our next meeting in February. It will be Thursday, February 12 from 5:30 - 7 pm at the LaVale Library. 4-H is for those aged 5 to 18 as of January 1.
We were able to extract DNA from strawberries at tonight's meeting. If you missed the meeting, you can still try this experiment at home. You just need some household items and a couple of strawberries (bananas are supposed to work too).
Here's the link to the PDF instructions from the NIH.https://www.genome.gov/sites/default/files/media/files/2023-04/How_to_extract_DNA_from_a_strawberry_508.pdf
In the photo, you can see the isopropyl or rubbing alcohol floating on top, then the DNA is the frothy looking material, and the soapy, strawberry, water extraction solution is on the bottom.
Like the strawberry, the cells of a horse contain DNA. There are "genes" all along those strands of DNA, and some of those genes determine the color of the horse.