From: Irene Yun (irene@archwayschool.org)
Date: Fri Mar 26 2004 - 06:43:41 PST
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 06:43:41 -0800 Subject: Re: Genetics Hands on Activities From: Irene Yun <irene@archwayschool.org> Message-ID: <BC89819D.B41%irene@archwayschool.org>
Look in the Exploratorium's Human Body Explorations for the fruit DNA
extraction. That was excellent.
I also did an activity over the summer where students used 1 meter sections
of calculator tape (those long rolls of 2 inch wide paper for calculators
and receipts) to create their own genetic codes - 1 letter per cm. The next
day, I staged a crime where someone's car got broken into in the school
parking lot and the police were going to do DNA tests on some blood left on
the broken window to try to find the thief and make sure that a student
didn't do it. We cleared the floor of desks then used a fake restriction
enzyme (ATT, cut between the T's) to cut their DNA then run it out across
the floor by size (your own supersized gel box) - for each fragment, it
moves 100 inches minus the number of letters from the loading well. I marked
out a 9 foot x 15 foot box on the floor with masking tape and created 1/2
food wide wells along the 15 foot length. Maybe this activity would be
useful? I used the DNA from the car (the thief's DNA) as an example for the
students to run out their own DNA - turns out nobody matched the thief!
Good luck,
Irene Yun
Archway School
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