Dame Alice Owen's School

Summer sun and skin cancer: how much sun does it take to bake a skin cell

Teacher: Mr Simon Poliakoff
Scientists: Dr Peter Karran and Dr Jane Kirk, Cancer Research UK

How much UV light are you exposed to at school? Students from Dame Alice Owen’s School not only carried out investigations at school, they also spent time in CRUK’s research labs working  alongside the scientists to find out what happens to human cells when they come into contact with UV light.

Analysing UV irradiated samples in the Clare Hall laboratories. Credit: CRUK.

The project was set up by Dr Jane Kirk, who works at the Clare Hall Laboratories and had responsibility for Education Outreach. She looked for a project topic that she thought would interest Year 10 students, and approached Dr Peter Karran to find out whether they could develop a project based on skin cancer, UV light, and damage to DNA. Jane was inspired to get involved because as a student herself, she had had the opportunity to observe a research project at a local university, and that had sparked off her interest in science, resulting in her becoming a researcher.

Mr Simon Poliakoff, Head of Physics at DAOS, was very keen to get all the Year 10 students involved in the project and planned the partnership accordingly. The project launched when Dr Kirk visited the school to give an introductory assembly to all the Year 10 students. She invited all of them to the Clare Hall labs for a lecture given by Dr Karran and Dr Natalie Attard, a clinical dermatologist, about some of the chemical and biological aspects of UV radiation and skin cancer. It was extremely well attended!

The lecture inspired around 20 students to get involved in the main part of the project. Here, students worked before and after school measuring levels of UVA and UVB radiation at different locations around the school, using the solar meters they had bought with the Partnership Grant. From their measurements, the students could calculate the average amount of radiation at the school.

Three sessions were set up at the Clare Hall Laboratories, and the students were able to work alongside the researchers growing cells in tissue culture, irradiating them, and assaying the results. By combining results from their own measurements and the lab sessions, students could relate actual sun exposure to photochemical DNA damage of skin cells

Bernard Davies, a teacher at Dame Alice Owen’s who attended one of the lab sessions, explained that it was a great opportunity for the students to get involved in experiments that they couldn’t do in class, such as tissue culture, and to discuss a greater range of scientific ideas away from the confines of the syllabus.

Other members of the lab were involved – PhD students and postdocs – running sessions in the laboratory and supervising the students. Everyone who worked with the students from Dame Alice Owen’s were impressed by their level of knowledge and their insightful questions – the researchers felt they were kept on their toes!

The students enjoyed the project more than their usual class practicals, and liked seeing the results of their efforts. Following their time in the lab, small groups of the Year 10 students visited local primary schools to give a presentation and run practical sessions for the primary school students. Next term, they will hold an open evening at the Clare Hall labs, showcasing the results of the project to the staff there.

Dame Alice Owen’s school and Clare Hall Laboratories will continue to work together, and at least one student has asked for further work experience after being involved in the project.

The project featured twice in the Welwyn and Hatfield Times. Read the introductory article and the report on the primary school visits.