With pipettes, students carefully added rubbing alcohol to plastic tubes to help DNA from wheat unwind.
Shaking their tubes as instructed, they saw hundreds of thousands of white strands. These are the building blocks of life, explained Kate Petty, a senior at Durango High School.
“All that goop is instruction,” she said.
About 450 students representing the Durango, Cortez and Mancos school districts gathered Friday at the Fort Lewis College Student Life Center to learn about science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Colorado and the Powerhouse Science Center hosted the Colorado Discovery Festival to encourage students, especially girls, to think about careers in these fields.
The Durango Police Department, La Plata County, The Garden Project of Southwest Colorado and other employers were among the 20 booths.
“It really gives them an opportunity to showcase their business, to really engage with kids on a level they haven’t done before,” said Anita Carpenter, executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters.
The festival is free and open to children and their families from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today at the Fort Lewis College Student Life Center.
