The Molecules of Life Project flows creatively with Motilin. Monday, the 15th October in Mrs Grant’s second grade class at Oxford Elementary School, thanks to the Motilin Maidens, Becka Viau (BA, NSCAD) and Karen Schurman (BSc SMU), all eyes were drawn into the intestine as hands squeezed mimicking the peristalsis motion of the digestive tube. [...]
Wednesday, December 13th, 2006, Halifax, NS, 2nd graders captured a Jararaca snake in Brazil as they were transported to 1949 and the event of the discovery of Bradykinin, thanks to Stephanie Melanson (BSc DAL) and Emmelyne Pornillos (MDes NSCADU). All were intrigued as Emmelyne traced the silhouette of a volunteer student on a large piece [...]
Friday, November 24th, 2006, Halifax, NS, 2nd graders grasped their kidneys and learned about vasopressin, thanks to an impressive performance by three MLP students Katie Nizio (BSc SMU), Anna Sprague (MFA Concordia) and Cody Stephenson (MFA NSCAD). Starting out with basic questions about water its importance in the body, particularly in blood, Katie brought us [...]
The Molecules of Life Project feels its blood pressure rise with Angiotensin Wednesday the 15th November in Mrs Grant’s second grade class at Oxford Elementary School, Amy Trottier (BSc DAL) was asked to pump up the peptide jam solo. Providing a solid background on the circulatory system and that most important muscle the heart, Amy [...]
June 3, 2012 in DNA, Resource for teachers
This poster provides ressources and ideas for teaching about DNA to students, who links to age-appropriate websites describing DNA, extract DNA from various fruits, and play a decoding game to learn how their genetic code is translated into the their various phenotypic qualities.
Pdf version: DNA
October 6, 2011 in DNA
The genetic code came to life for the 5th grade students in Ms Ippolito’s class at École FACE School on Tuesday the 24th of November, 2009, thanks to MoL Team DNA, Tanya Godina (chemistry MSc student U Montréal) and Dr. David Sabatino (PDF chemistry U Montréal). The so called “Molecule of Life”, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was first introduced to the students by David, who employed a series of animations (for URLs see below), to teach the students the basics of genetics, cells, chromosomes, genes, DNA, SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) and mutations. From the discussion that emerged, it was clear that the students knew all kinds of interesting information about genetics, particularly mutations. The students learned that DNA codes for the various proteins that determine whether we are a human, goat, monkey or banana. Humans share 99.5% of their DNA with each other. The other 0.5% of our DNA codes for our different traits such as our height, sex, ear shape, eye color and hair texture.
After this introduction, Tanya provided each student with their own DNA extraction kit and each of the 30 students extracted DNA from either a piece of banana, orange, apple or zucchini. Guided by Tanya, the students crushed up their fruit or vegetable sample, added it to a mixture of bicarbonate of soda containing some salt and soap, and shook up the mixture, which was filtered. To the filtrate, some cold rubbing alcohol (isopropanol) was added to create a two phase solution. The students were captivated as they watched the DNA precipitate at the interface of the two layers.
Finally, to give the students a taste of what it is like to decode the genetic code, Tanya and David shared a game in which the three letter codes from DNA were translated into one-letter amino acid codes which spelled out traits (i.e. blue eyes, pointed nose …), which were used to bring a picture of a new being to life.
Pleased to have the mystery of the genetic code decoded for them in a fun and informative way, the students thanked team DNA for teaching them all about genes.
For a great animated introduction to the world of DNA see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOvMNOMRRm8
For an animated introduction to SNPs see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5raJePXu0OQ&feature=related
For an animated introduction on where your genes come from see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJzZ7p-47P8&feature=related
For plenty of videos and information on DNA, replication, mutations… see:
http://www.historyforkids.org/scienceforkids/biology/cells/dna.htm
and the videos therein.
For more on how to extract DNA from fruits see:
http://www.funsci.com/fun3_en/dna/dna.htm
See our ‘Resource for Teachers’ poster : http://moleculesoflife.ca/category/resource-for-teachers/
