Many teachers believe that teaching polymerase chain reaction isn’t “practical” for their classroom. The benefits just don’t seem to outweigh the time, money, and space needed to teach the concepts, since time limits how involved students can be in running the experiment.
However, once teachers and students get their hands on the MiniOne® PCR, they are surprised and delighted at how fast, compact, intuitive the system is, and how flawlessly it helps teach key molecular biology concepts.
Here’s a great testimonial from a customer who brought the MiniOne PCR into their undergraduate biology classroom:
We have used the MiniOne PCR system in our Advances in Biotechnology Laboratory course to amplify DNA fragments for cloning and to amplify complete plasmid molecules for site-directed mutagenesis. The little device worked perfectly as a thermocycler for the experiments, but it was ideal for the teaching laboratory. Of all thermocyclers we have used in the past, this one is by far the most adequate. As in any laboratory class, time to carry out the experiments is limited by the programmed periods. The MiniOne PCR system is so fast that this semester we could afford to do many more experiments. The advantages of the device do not stop at that; its other characteristics made it the most convenient we have ever used, and the students appreciated its attributes. First being so small and light made transportation before and during class very easy and took up little space from the normally crowded bench space. Also, we never had such a friendly user interface, it uses a mobile device for programming and controlling, and setting up is intuitive and visual. We took advantage of the stop and continue property, which allowed the students to take samples at different stages and visualize the reaction products as the amplification progressed. In summary, we had a wonderful experience with the MiniOne PCR system in our course this year. It was fun and easy to use, it allowed to use the space and time better than in previous years, and the students could perform a longer and more complete set of experiments. I strongly recommend the MiniOne PCR system for teaching laboratories and also for the research lab.
– Marcelo E. Tolmasky, Ph.D
Professor/Director, Center for Applied Biotechnology Studies, Department of Biological Science/College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics/California State University Fullerton
Thanks, Marcelo, for the wonderful testimonial. We hope your students enjoy the benefits of learning this practical STEM concept for years to come!
Click here to learn more about the MiniOne PCR, or contact us for more information or to get a quote for your classroom!
