Today was Day 1 of the Life Science workshop for Biology students. The following paragraph is directly quoted from the letter to our parents informing this workshop:

"In this workshop, students will learn how to appreciate the work of epidemiologists in profiling an infectious disease and how to fight against it. They will also learn various microbiological skills like polymerase chain reaction, reverse transcription and gel electrophoresis method. Please be informed that this is a simulation exercise; no real virus will be used."

In today's lesson, we learnt that a LaLa virus (fake, of course, with inspiration drawn from the Sars virus) had killed many people. We went on to learn how to hold and use a micropipette properly, about polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and reverse transcription. We also used these methods in our quest to find out if the patient sample we received (there were 10 groups in the class, and each group received one patient sample and one positive/negative control) had the LaLa virus or not.

After the workshop I asked the class about their decision for the date and venue of our class chalet. The date (December 1 - December 3) was okay, but the choice for the venue (Costa Sands East Coast Duplex chalet) wasn't that good - it was the most expensive among the lot, though big. Oh well...