Central Dogma 5e

Day 1
Engage- Show students pictures of people and other animals affected
by albinism.
Have students break into groups and
brainstorm explanations as to how this
disorder occurs. The teacher
will walk around the classroom visiting groups and comment or guide
their questions. After some student brainstorming, introduce to the
class what melanin is and ask them to again think about how
they
think the disorder occurs.
Explore- Have students look through this Utah Genetics site to learn
what kinds of
proteins there are and what they do. Essentially
show them how important
and diverse proteins are.
Guiding questions:
1. How are proteins fundamental to an organisms form and
function? Give 4 different specific examples.
2. Where do proteins come from?
3. Make a model of this process. (Students will be told this
model is just their guess. Not looking for one right answer
at this point)
Day 2
Explain- Students will briefly present their models to the class and
explain how they
think proteins are made.
Elaborate- Teacher will present a brief powerpoint on central dogma.
This power
point will be brief, simple and present only the
BIG IDEAS. The students
will then watch this Clearly
Stated video. After the powerpoint and
video, the
students will revisit and refine the models they previously
made.
Evaluate- Students will work with partners and explore this
Transcribe and Translate a Gene activity on Utah Genetics and
will complete
the activity 3 times, each time writing in their note
books the DNA
sequences, corresponding RNA sequence and the
proteins made from
matching codons. These proteins are not
functional but
for fun, the teacher
can ask the students to name
the proteins and give them a function. This
activity will
demonstrate that students understand how RNA corresponds
with
DNA as well as how amino acids are selected using codons. After
students complete this task, we will have a discussion about
what they experienced. What are start codons? Stop codons?
Redundancy?
Day 3 (short class period)
Elaborate- This will be the day students learn the details that go into
transcription
and translation. They will learn about all of the
enzymes and machinery
involved and the in depth processes of
central dogma. This will be presented
in the
form of

powerpoint. Saving the complicated details until the end allows for
students to better understand the details. They will all have an idea
of what transcription and translation is and we add the hard stuff at the
end after the foundation is laid.
Days 4-8
Evaluate- This evaluation will be an extended application lab activity.
In groups, the
students will perform a bacterial transformation in
which they incorporate the gene, GFP into E. coli, which causes the
organism to glow. There will be
guiding questions as well as post
lab questions in the lab and students will create a visual model of the
process of transformation. Students will culture
bacteria on
plates, perform PCR, run gel electrophoresis, as well as BLAST
their
E. coli DNA to identify successful transformation. There will also be a
twist in the lab when their transformed bacteria do not glow even
though
they confirm successful transformation. The students have
to figure out how
to get GFP to be expressed. (GFP is regulated
by the presence of the sugar,
arabinose so they must add some
to their plate.) The lab will be guided with
power point as
students learn about transformations.