DNA Model
Aim: I want to find out how to create a DNA model with craft equipment.
Equipment:
- Bendy Wire
- Painted Styrofoam Balls
- Styrofoam Base
- Paintbrush - Sponge
Method:
Discussion:
What is DNA?
DNA is short for deoxyribonucleic acid which is present in all living things. DNA contains the genetic information for all organisms. The structure of DNA is called the double helix and looks like a twisted ladder. It's made up of nucleotides. Nucleotides consist of sugar, phosphate and base. There are four bases of nucleotides, Adenine (A), Cytosine (C), Guanine (G) and Thymine (T). These four bases help create our identities such as height and hair colour. Different bases pair with each other like Adenine pairs with Thymine and Cytosine pairs with Guanine. Unless it's RNA which then Adenine ( A ) pairs with Uracil ( U ). There are a total of 46 chromosomes in a cell, 23 from your father and 23 from your mother. Chromosomes are made up of DNA.
How does DNA work?
DNA works by telling amino acids how to form themselves, producing larger particles which are identified as proteins. Proteins have to be formed in the perfect shape to function otherwise they won't work. DNA lives in the nucleus and amino acids live in the cytoplasm. Cytoplasm is a jelly-like substance that forms up much of the cell. To help DNA communicate with the amino acids, chemicals inside the nucleus make significant partial copies of the DNA code. These partial copies are called RNA ( Ribonucleic Acid ) they look very similar to DNA but they are missing one side. Their small shape helps them fit through the nucleus's pores and into the ribosome which assists in building proteins. The ribosome decodes the RNA code and sucks the amino acids and develops a chain according to the RNA code. This chain later builds itself to become a protein. Proteins help create cells, cells help create tissues. Tissues make up organs and organs help form living creatures.
FACTS ( DNA ):
- A single strand of DNA is millions of letter long.
- Your DNA can stretch from the earth to the sun and back, 600 times.
- There are five types of DNA, B-DNA, Z-DNA, A-DNA, C-DNA and D-DNA.
Evaluation:
This is my completed DNA model, I am very proud of what I did, but next time I would like to make the model a bit larger. A problem I had was the metal hidden in between the Styrofoam balls wouldn't set to the right position. This made it hard because the sculpture kept turning in different directions. I was able to resolve this issue by hammering it to my preferred position. I also had a tough time sticking the metal into the base of the model, because it was heavy and kept falling off. Fortunately, I was able to hot glue gun the base. If you were to create my model, I would recommend fixing the mistakes I made, making the model a bit bigger and filling in the gaps between styrofoam balls to make it stand out more. I would definitely recommend using a hot glue gun because it makes the model sturdier. I enjoyed doing this task. Learning and creating DNA has made me think of how Watson and Crick discovered it's structure, and what was their reaction. It has also made me think about RNA and what's Uracil? If I was to learn more about DNA, I would like to extract DNA from a human and look at it under a microscope to see it's structure. Learning about DNA has made me think more about who first discovered it and was it a mistake.
Questions:
Can you modify the DNA code to get different characteristics?
Can you see how DNA works in action ? - ( perhaps through a microscope )
Mr Stock can we extract DNA from a human?
Equipment:
- Bendy Wire
- Painted Styrofoam Balls
- Styrofoam Base
- Paintbrush - Sponge
Method:
Results:
Discussion:
What is DNA?
How does DNA work?
DNA works by telling amino acids how to form themselves, producing larger particles which are identified as proteins. Proteins have to be formed in the perfect shape to function otherwise they won't work. DNA lives in the nucleus and amino acids live in the cytoplasm. Cytoplasm is a jelly-like substance that forms up much of the cell. To help DNA communicate with the amino acids, chemicals inside the nucleus make significant partial copies of the DNA code. These partial copies are called RNA ( Ribonucleic Acid ) they look very similar to DNA but they are missing one side. Their small shape helps them fit through the nucleus's pores and into the ribosome which assists in building proteins. The ribosome decodes the RNA code and sucks the amino acids and develops a chain according to the RNA code. This chain later builds itself to become a protein. Proteins help create cells, cells help create tissues. Tissues make up organs and organs help form living creatures.
FACTS ( DNA ):
- A single strand of DNA is millions of letter long.
- Your DNA can stretch from the earth to the sun and back, 600 times.
- There are five types of DNA, B-DNA, Z-DNA, A-DNA, C-DNA and D-DNA.
Evaluation:
This is my completed DNA model, I am very proud of what I did, but next time I would like to make the model a bit larger. A problem I had was the metal hidden in between the Styrofoam balls wouldn't set to the right position. This made it hard because the sculpture kept turning in different directions. I was able to resolve this issue by hammering it to my preferred position. I also had a tough time sticking the metal into the base of the model, because it was heavy and kept falling off. Fortunately, I was able to hot glue gun the base. If you were to create my model, I would recommend fixing the mistakes I made, making the model a bit bigger and filling in the gaps between styrofoam balls to make it stand out more. I would definitely recommend using a hot glue gun because it makes the model sturdier. I enjoyed doing this task. Learning and creating DNA has made me think of how Watson and Crick discovered it's structure, and what was their reaction. It has also made me think about RNA and what's Uracil? If I was to learn more about DNA, I would like to extract DNA from a human and look at it under a microscope to see it's structure. Learning about DNA has made me think more about who first discovered it and was it a mistake.
Questions:
Can you modify the DNA code to get different characteristics?
Can you see how DNA works in action ? - ( perhaps through a microscope )
Mr Stock can we extract DNA from a human?
DNA
Kia ora Nidhi,
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting topic and a great example of a quality blog post. Science is not a subject I studied at school, but this blog post made me interested in learning more about DNA. I am curious about the questions you have asked and the solutions you have found to your problems. Are you going to research this any further? I wonder whether it would be ethical at this stage to extract DNA from a human or whether you could extract it from something else first?
Look forward to hearing your thoughts,
- Miss Morgan
Hi Miss Morgan,
DeleteThank You, for commenting on my blog post and I would be interested in researching more about DNA and anything in relation to it.
Thanks, Nidhi.
With your evaluation, I would like you to do two things...
ReplyDelete1. Evaluate how well your practical went. The easiest way to start this off is by imagining that you are explaining your project to a friend. Is there something you might do differently that you think your friend might benefit from.
2. From what you have learned in this unit, has it sparked any new questions that you would like to ask and find out answers to? Are there any experiments that you could follow up with based on your learning?
In your Question section, you asked if we could extract DNA from humans. We can but not at school. We are not allowed to use any human fluids/materials. You might have to wait until you go to University.