"We feel that our middle school outreach programs here at Berkeley Lab and at the JGI have been very well received. We ask the students to fill out evaluation sheets, and the overwhelming reply to the question "What did you like the best?" is "hands-on activities" (not an unexpected answer!).  I do think that these activities bring home the important message that all living things contain DNA.  This fact, coupled with the fact that each student literally takes home a vial containing the DNA that he/she extracted from fruit, enables us to say that our entire program is a 'success story' that goes beyond the classroom and reaches into the homes of these students and, eventually, into the entire community.

— Elain Gong, Berkeley Lab Researcher