Genetics

Note that this page links from both the high school and the 7th grade wikis. Make sure that the activity is appropriate to your grade level. 7th graders do not need to go into detail about DNA structure or protein synthesis and does not have to have kids create and solve Punett square.

Amber H found a great article about a single gene mutation [|Fancy Feather Gene Article]

Many good activities for this and other units at:

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_edu/waldron/

Sexual vs Asexual-

The lesson plan developed by the 7th grade DAIT team 10/30/12- the diagram dialogue that goes with the lesson  a concept map for the standard Jorge's memory cards for the lesson (note that kids will not be tested on knowing the names or details of the stages of mitosis, just the overall outcomes)-

Jerry's Power point

Lynn uses flower dissection- lab 14 B here.

Double bubble of mitosis v meiosis use large butcher paper to draw and compare the processes.

Compare lab 8A with CPO page 156- CCSS reading standard 9 compare experiment to text

Sea urchin lab use budding yeast under the microscope for asexual example.

CPO Pg 164- twins article

Brain Pops- DNA, Mitosis, Gender determination, asexual reproduction

You Tube of meiosis square dance- several versions Use Oreos with sprinkles to mimic the stages of the cell cycle.

rooting plant parts to show asexual reproduction- potato eyes, ivy, cactus joints, etc...

For mitosis and meiosis- have kids build pipe-cleaner and cheerio chromosomes to model the process and see the difference (you can later add tape markers to indicate genes)

use onion root tip microscope slides to see cells undergoing mitosis.

Two protocols for letting kids extract their own DNA from their own cheek cells (courtesy of Sarah Robles and Alicia Virgo at DHSHS) - [|Cheek DNA] [|see your DNA]

Another DNA lab that doesn't use cheek cells but gets high marks.

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/labs/extraction/howto/

You can turn the DNA extraction labs into hypothesis type labs by comparing the results from two different extraction protocols or comparing the amount of DNA extracted from two different sources.

Sarah R does a card sort of the phases out of order and asks kids to figure out the most logical sequence- good inquiry.

Robert P uses sock genetics 

Nina has the kids make babies! . Here is a great activity created by Sarah Robles and Telia Davis at DHSHS.



Another version of the bracelets from Nina Shine

Here is a version of Bingo called Amino created by Telia Davis as DHSHS-

An amazing site that lets you work on real life protein folding problems [|Fold.it] A version of the activity where you examine your own traits as a slideshow.

Bellwork to check prior knowledge on DNA-

Some Biotech resources- Two crime scene labs- From Robert P- From Sarah R-

A lab on dragon genetics- A template for building DNA using inquiry- I like this one, because the students can put it together in different ways- some correct and some incorrect, so you can put the students in the position of Watson and Crick trying to solve the structure. Go through several iterations and keep giving more information- ie the number of A=T, C=G, the width of the strand, until they end up with a structure that works. These are some easier to use templates- they are bigger and have one component on each sheet for easy color copying-

An inquiry based way to teach DNA replication from Heather Allen

Sarah R has created a video guide for Photo 51 about Rosalind Franklin the video guides make good sub lessons email Sarah at srobles@psusd.us for more of her video guides.

A protein synthesis flow map activity- A coin flip activity for sex determination-

To give kids a sense of the central importance of proteins (Biology)- Start with a circle map abut proteins. You can help focus with questions like what are they, what are they made of, what do they do. Then go to the text index and find out where proteins are referenced. Give each group a section(one or two paragraphs) in the book that talks about proteins (on an index card). Have each group share what they found out about proteins and add this info to the circle map. Finish by having each student write a paragraph about the importance of proteins.

Some Video guides from Sarah R about Biotechnology-

Jorge's mitosis/meiosis memory game. Gregg- gene wheel Jorge- Bikini Botom genetics, harry potter genetics Drosphila Nina S- Coin flip make a baby lab Sock genetics- Robert Sarah- vocab game
 * Coming soon !**-

Robert- DNA paper model

Sarah- DNA cutout puzzle,