This month, we're exploring genetics! We started off with a conversation about our favorite traits and whether or not we think they are passed down from our family members. We watched a short video about DNA and genes and then it was time to take a look at some real DNA. The students worked in pairs to extract the DNA from a strawberry. Pretty amazing that we can isolate DNA--and as we explained to the kids, we can't see the individual double helix strands with our naked eye, but we can see a lot of strands grouped together. We compared this to not being able to see a single thread from a few houses away, but if you wound a lot of threads together to make a thick rope, you could see it even from a distance. They wanted to see if anything was visible under the microscope, so we checked each of the samples, but I'm not sure that the few little lines we saw were actually DNA (check out the video link below to see strawberry DNA under the microscope). But it was fun to look, and I love that the kids are thinking about these things. This was a great start to our DNA unit and there are so many amazing activities out there to deepen this study. We'll be exploring human traits and how DNA codes for proteins in the next couple weeks, but make sure you check out the links below if you want to do more with this unit.
Videos: Bill Nye: Genes--Overview of genes, chromosomes, DNA, dominant and recessive traits. What is DNA and How Does It Work? --A 5 min. explanation for what DNA is. Strawberry DNA Under the Microscope--This looks a lot clearer than what we saw! Books: The Usborne Introduction to Genes and DNA--This is a great, easy to understand, overview with fantastic pictures and illustrations. This website includes links to supporting websites. Activities: Extract DNA from a Strawberry--The instructions for what we did in class are here if anyone wanted to try again at home. Basic Genetics-- This website has a lots of videos, brief explanations, and virtual activities about everything genetics. You can build a DNA molecule, match chromosomes to build a karyotype, and a lot more!
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May 2020
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