On Monday 8th March Upper II joined with Year 6 MGS boys for a PhilSoc meeting held in the WGS Arts Centre . Dr Cristina Vilela, teacher of Biology and Chemistry at Withington, gave a fascinating presentation on the topic of Genetics.

Using the theme Discovering the Recipe for Life, Dr Vilela enthralled the young audience with her explanation of the facts about genes and DNA. Did you know that if you unravelled all the DNA strands in the human body that there would be enough to reach the moon and back 800 times?

There was much audience participation with the pupils popping balloons representing nuclei – and searching behind their seats for the correct ‘facial features' to match to the DNA profiles presented by Dr Vilela. The talk was pitched at just the right level for these young enquiring minds and led to a very deep discussion back in the classroom about the ethics of cloning.

A huge thank you goes to Dr Vilela for her presentation – she has certainly stimulated all who attended to think and enquire further about genetics and other scientific issues.