It has become a rite of passage for STEM students at the Yeshiva University High School for Girls (Central): the annual visit to the Dolan DNA Learning Center. Over the past month, Central’s AP Biology course, taught by Science Department Chair and Science Institute Director Mrs. Ruth Fried, and Central’s Forensics class, taught by faculty member Mrs. Shulamith Biderman, visited the Dolan Center to put skills used in their home labs to the test in the outer world. During their first visit, students focused on gel electrophoresis, a technique in which DNA is placed on a gel surface and run through an electrical current to separate the DNA into distinct pieces according to size, granting specific, banded patterns that enable specialists to compare and contrast the DNA of different people. “For molecular biology, this tactic is as crucial to experimental research as the microscope is for general biology,” said Mrs. Fried. “The significance of this lab isn’t just that it’s fun – it gives students the confidence needed to use these tools to continue their work in molecular biology.”