1.
Write your name in the box – using no more than 10 characters. Click on start!

2.
Read the texts and click on "Ok".

3.
The lecture on PCR including five questions is more than 15 minutes long. Click on "Skip lecture" if you want to proceed to the game. (Note: You don't gain any points if you answer the five questions correctly.)

4.
Click on "Ok".

5.
Pick the objects that have been left at the crime scene by clicking on them.

6.
Click on the button on the PCR machine.

7.
You will find that the PCR machine does not work. So you will have to do the process manually. To begin, drag and drop the three waterbaths in the cupboards onto the bench to the right.

8.
Click on the on/off button on the wall.

9.
Each waterbath will be used for a step in the three-step PCR process. Click on the little note on the wall to get information and facts about the names on the three PCR stages - denaturing, annealing and synthesising. To hide the note again – click anywhere in the picture. Information about the three stages also appears at the end of this "Help" page.

10.
To setup the waterbaths to carry out each stage in the PCR process, do the following:
a) write "denaturing" here.
b) write "annealing" here.
c) write "synthesizing" here.
d) click on "check" on each PCR machine when ready.

11.
The next step is to adjust the conditions for each waterbath.
a) Adjust the correct temperature by clicking on "+" or "-".
b) Adjust the correct time on each waterbath.
Don't forget you can look at the note on the wall to get the information, or you can look at the KEY at the bottom of this "help" page.

12.
Now, you should be ready to start amplifying the DNA in your crime samples. Start the process as follows:
a) Put the test tube in the waterbath marked denaturing.
b) Click on the start button.
(Denaturing is the stage where you separate the two strand in the DNA molecule.)

13.
a) Move the test tube to the second waterbath marked annealing.
b) Click on "start".
(Annealing is the stage where the so called primers attach to their sites.)

c) Move the test tube to the waterbath marked synthesising.
d) Click on "start".
(Synthesising is the stage in PCR when the enzyme polymerase starts to build new DNA)

 

KEY
Denaturing
temperature: 95 degrees Celsius
time: 45 seconds

Annealing
temperature: 56 degrees Celsius
time: 30 seconds

Synthesising
temperature: 72 degrees Celsius
time: 60 seconds