The+Code+of+Life

 Activity One  **DNA is the biological material found in each cell that carries our genetic inheritance. Use this [|questionnaire] to find out how genetic transfer takes place from one generation to the next. Many of your answers may be found at the following sites (the first site replaces the Andrew Carter link that no longer works on the questionnaire.  ** View this [|Nova site] to understand how the DNA molecule is constructed and what its various jobs are.
 * **[|Interactive DNA site] **
 * **[|Various DNA sites] **
 * **[|Interactive molecule] **
 * 

Explore a [|stretch of DNA code]. Remember that the strand of DNA is a long sequence of [|nucleotides] which are composed of a sugar, a phosphate group and a nucleic acid (adenine, thymine, guanine or cytosine). **  Activity Two  **Read about [|nucleic acids]: how they are constructed, how they work, and who was involved in solving the DNA code. Your teacher will give you a handout with questions that you will hand in.

Visit [|this site] to explore the genes located on each chromosome.

Find out how the human [|genome is sequenced].**  Molecule of Life. <span style="background-color: #c0c0c0; color: #ff0000; display: block; font-size: 140%; text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">**<span style="background-color: #f1dada; display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">Once you understand a little about the molecule itself, we need to understand the [|purpose of the DNA molecule] <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span class="wiki_link_ext" style="background-color: #f1dada; display: block; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;"> <span style="background-color: #f1dada; display: block; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">: <span style="background-color: #fadf6b; display: block; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 132%; text-align: center;">* <span style="background-color: #f1dada; display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;"> to produce proteins for the use of the organism. Watch as the molecule unravels, generates RNA in a process called TRANSCRIPTION, travels out of the nucleus into the cytoplasm, meets a ribosome and undergoes a process called TRANSLATION, during which a protein is constructed. <span style="background-color: #f1dada; display: block; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;"> ** <span style="background-color: #ffc300; display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 96%; text-align: center;">***Scroll down to the topic heading Molecular Biology and choose Transcription and Translation.** <span style="background-color: #ffc300; display: block; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 96%; text-align: center;"> <span style="background-color: #f1dada; display: block; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;"> <span style="background-color: #c0c0c0; color: #ff0000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 168%; text-align: center;">Activity Four <span style="background-color: #f1dada; display: block; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;"> <span style="background-color: #f1dada; display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">**Access this [|interactive website] and answer the questions given to you by your teacher.
 * View this video about the **media type="custom" key="2666077"
 * Activity Three**

To review what you have learned so far, view this video about [|protein synthesis].

The [|Genetic Science Learning Center]site provides a great deal of information about genes, chromosomes and the process of protein synthesis. Work through all three sections, beginning with the section on "What is a Gene?" The site provides several opportunities for hands-on activities.** <span style="background-color: #f1dada; display: block; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;"> <span style="background-color: #c0c0c0; color: #ff0000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 156%; text-align: center;">**Activity Five** <span style="background-color: #f1dada; display: block; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;"> Read the following scenario and answer the questions that follow:

<span style="background-color: #ebc7f0; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;">The girl's death brought great sadness to the tribe. Children held a special importance for these people. Her grave would be filled with gifts: trinkets she had liked in life, tools she would need in her next life. Her body, laid out as if she were sleeping on her side, was held in place under the water of the bog by stakes. Durable, well-woven cloth and a grass mat covered the child. There she lay, in a Florida bog, for nearly 8000 years! Although her skin, muscles, and internal organs decayed, her small skeleton endured, as, most incredibly, did her brain! The child's brain, shrunken and discolored, was so well-preserved that tissue samples including the DNA-- the genetic code that had made her a beloved child -- are intact: a treasure for scientists today as she was a treasure to her people so long ago.

1. Who are the [|"bog people?"] 2. How does the bog itself act as a preservative? 3. In what kind of community did the ancient bog people live? 4. The following statement was made by a scientist recovering bones from this same Florida bog. "One can envision these folks as being ultimately ancestral to people in that area," Doran says. "But the DNA signatures that we can see certainly are not 1:1 matches for modern groups."<span style="background-color: #ebc7f0; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 115.2%; text-align: left;">How would you explain this statement? 5. How do discoveries of this type help us to understand the ancient people? <span style="background-color: #ebc7f0; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 96%; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: #ebc7f0; display: block; font-family: Webdings; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: #f1dada; display: block; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;"> <span style="background-color: #c0c0c0; color: #ff0000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 168%; text-align: center;">**Activity Six** <span style="background-color: #f1dada; display: block; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;"> <span style="background-color: #eefb98; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;"> Activity: THE FOLLOWING IS THE BASE SEQUENCE ON ONE STRAND OF A DNA MOLECULE: A A T G C C A G T G G T T C G C A C <span style="background-color: #f1dada; display: block; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">
 * 1) Give the base sequence of the complementary DNA strand.
 * 2) Draw this DNA molecule.
 * 3) Give the base sequence of the strand of mRNA read from the original DNA strand.
 * 4) Draw this RNA molecule.
 * 5) What protein fragment would this mRNA code for?
 * 6) If the fourth nucleotide in the original DNA strand were changed from G to C, what would the resulting mRNA look like?
 * 7) What would the resulting protein look like?
 * 8) If a G were added to the original DNA strand after the 3rd nucleotide, what would the resulting mRNA look like?
 * 9) What would the resulting protein look like?
 * 10) If the 8th nucleotide in the original DNA strand were changed from G to C, what would the resulting mRNA look like?
 * 11) What would the resulting protein look like?

Solve the [|Baffling Baby Mix-Up] with your knowledge of DNA and genetics!

<span style="background-color: #c0c0c0; color: #ff0000; display: block; font-size: 140%; text-align: center;">**Activity Seven** **Use the handout from your teacher to explore the process by which the cell constructs a protein.** The following links will take you through this activity. Log on to this <span class="wiki_link_ext">[|webquest] site. This is part A. Part B uses [|this website]. Use [|this website] for part C. Use this website to complete [|part D]. If this site does not provide answers to all the questions, answer only those that you can answer. The original website no longer exists. You have already done some of the work in part E. Use [|this website] to answer questions 41-43. Part F uses [|this website.] To complete part G, you will need [|this website.]

<span style="background-color: #c0c0c0; color: #ff0000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: center;">Activity Eight <span style="background-color: #9bff00; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Protein Synthesis Activity: INTRODUCTION : The process of protein synthesis involves an understanding of [|transcription] and [|translation]. The direction for these two processes comes from the order of nucleotides on the DNA molecule of a particular gene segment on a chromosome. The code of the DNA nucleotides directs the construction of mRNA which in turn determines the construction of tRNA. This activity is designed to simulate the process of protein synthesis with the end result a sentence rather than a protein.

PROCEDURE
 * 1) Your teacher will distribute a DNA gene fragment to each student.
 * 2) Determine the complimentary bases of mRNA for the fragment. (Remember to divide your fragment into codons.) What is this process called?
 * 3) Your teacher will direct you to an area of the room where cards have been mounted on the wall. Search for the codons on the cards that match your sequences.
 * 4) Lift the card and write down the words on the backs of the cards in order.
 * 5) What did you find?
 * 6) What do you think caused this?
 * 7) What will you do now?
 * 8) What is THIS process called?
 * 9) Now find your codons in order on the wall.
 * 10) Show your completed sentence to your teacher.
 * 11) How does this sentence differ from the first one?

ANALYSIS
 * 1) Write down the sentence(s) that you formed.
 * 2) What are the similarities between this activity and the process of protein synthesis?
 * 3) What are the differences between this activity and the process of protein synthesis?
 * 4) Were there any mutations in your sentences? Explain.
 * 5) What could cause a mutation?



<span style="background-color: #d200ff; display: block; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">Activity Eight <span style="background-color: #d200ff; display: block; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> A Fractured Fairy Tale Once upon a time there were two fraternal twin brothers: Donald N. Armstrong and Ronald N. Armstrong. Donald was the smarter of the two, and he was a successful inventor with many patents. Although Ronald was not as smart as his brother, he was extremely loyal. One day, Donald came up with an idea for a solar powered car. Given the ever-present possibility of an energy shortage and ridiculously high prices at the pumps, an efficient solar powered car would be in great demand. However, Donald didn't really want to leave his comfortable estate. He certainly couldn't take a chance by using e-mail or a fax to send his plans to the factory. They might be stolen by industrial spies! Donald knew his loyal brother would do anything for him, so he asked him to be a messenger and carry the plans to the factory, which Ronald was more than willing to do. At the factory, the assembly line was set up and factory workers brought the parts to be assembled into a prototype. The car has proven to be enormously successful.
 * Relate each part of the story to the corresponding component of the process of protein synthesis:**
 * 1) Donald
 * 2) Ronald
 * 3) estate
 * 4) plans
 * 5) factory
 * 6) factory workers

<span style="background-color: #e400ff; display: block; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 132%; text-align: center;">Activity Nine <span style="background-color: #e400ff; display: block; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;"> DNA Extraction Lab Questions **Complete the lab according to your lab sheet and your teacher's instructions.**
 * Answer the following questions (these will serve as your lab analysis):**
 * 1) What is the purpose of the split peas?
 * 2) Why did we blend the peas?
 * 3) What is the purpose of the detergent? (Hint: think of the nature of the cell membrane)
 * 4) What does the meat tenderizer do?
 * 5) What purpose does the alcohol serve?

On this website, you might find some of the answers to the above questions, but you may also participate in a [|virtual DNA extraction lab.]

<span style="background-color: #c0c0c0; color: #ff0000; display: block; font-size: 140%; text-align: center;">**Activity Ten** Your teacher will give you a worksheet that will lead you through [|this webquest]. The individual reports will be your final exam in this class. See [|rubric.]

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