I completed my first Gel electrophoresis on the extracted DNA samples this week. 
Gel electrophoresis is the method of separating charged molecules of DNA, RNA and Protein according to their size. In this case, I used negatively charged DNA strands and used electric current across the gel to get the strands to travel towards the opposite charge. Smaller strands travel through the gel more quickly than the larger ones, which is how we distinguish that the molecules have been separated by size. 

Protocol: 
Preparing the Agarose gel:
  -Prepare 50X TAE buffer
  -Prepare 1X TAE buffer
  -Prepare 0.8% agarose gel:
          -0.8 grams agarose
          -100 ml 1X TAE
          -Microwave 2 min. (stop once at 50s, swirl,continue)
          -Add 4 microlitres of Ethidium bromide.
  -All 25-30 min. for the gel to solidify
  -Prepare the genomic DNA samples
    - Based on the concentrations, use 250-350 ng of DNA 
    - Total volume should be 20 microlitres. Using nuclease free water to make up the difference.
    - Add 5 microlitres of 6X loading dye to each of the prepared samples.
  - Fill the gel apparatus with 1X TAE buffer until the wells are completely covered. 
  -Pipette 5 microlitres of the ladder and 25 microlitres of the prepared samples into the wells
  -Add 4 microlitres of Ethidium Bromide to the positive end of the apparatus in the 1X TAE Buffer
  - Run for 1 hr. at 110 volts.
  - Use UV box to image gel 

Results:

The orange bands are the movement of DNA. On the left, is the DNA ladder, that contains a mixture of DNA fragments of known sizes. As we move to the right, we can see the movement of the varying concentration of DNA. By comparing these DNA bands to the DNA ladder, it can be said that the size of these DNA samples is around 7,000 base pairs of nucleotides.