Mitosis!!!!!

Don't ask me why I felt it necessary to put four exclamation points on the title of this post..... probably because I am FINALLY feeling better and have my normal energy back.
So here we go - today's daily questions:

Then we went into Mitosis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Again with the exclamation points?!?!?!)

First a quick reminder of what was happening during interphase and what the DNA looked like during that time.

The DNA during Interphase is all messy and unwound.  This is because the "instruction manual" needs to be open so the cell can read it to make all the proteins needed to do what the cell does.

During the S phase a copy of all that DNA is made but is still all "messy".  NOW the cells starts into the division of the nucleus. 
First the STAGES of mitosis.  I HATE having you memorize things for the sake of memorizing and there will never be a time i say "List the stages of mitosis in order"....... WHO CARES?!?!?  What I REALLY care about is that you understand what is HAPPENING during Mitosis.
BUT.... in case you just like to memorize things......... here are some ways to remember them ;)

Now for the fun..... 

FIRST..... Using our STRING models.....the Chromatin has Condensed to form the nice compact Sister Chromatids.

 With our Mitosis Models it looked like this:

 Next up..... Metaphase Middle.... METAPHASE MIDDLE METAPHASE MIDDLE

ANAPHASE APART!!!!

Got that so far?!?!  METAPHASE MIDDLE, ANAPHASE APART all together now METAPHASE MIDDLE ANAPHASE APART!!!

Finally.....

 AND the chromosomes start to uncoil.  So back to the MESSY form (since these will next become two cells and each of those cells will be right back in interphase where the instruction manual need to open)

Now that Mitosis is complete the cell goes through cytokinesis.

and OF COURSE we had some songs to remember this.........
I SOOOOOOOOOOO need to bring my guitar and we should make a song ;)

Because we need to outdo THIS guy - Mr.W ain't got nothin on Miss E ;)

DAILY QUESTION QUIZ TOMORROW!!!!  Great job today!!!!

DNA Replication Wrap UP

So Monday we practiced DNA replication with some online activities, Tuesday we went through  DNA replication using the K'nex models, last week you read and wrote about DNA replication in your notes and today we just brought it all together.  The majority of the class period was spent on the daily questions and a detailed look at what we had done yesterday.



As ALWAYS I had some horribly awesome YouTube videos of songs to help you remember this concept......

 



DNA Replication

FULL DAY OF SCHOOL TODAY!!!!!  (I sense that I am the only one THIS excited about having full class periods with you guys.......)

Today we started with the following daily questions - once you finished writing your daily questions I had you build your own 6 base pair DNA strand to start today's activities.

 

You Drew out your DNA molecule with room to draw out the steps of DNA replication



First you acted as DNA Helicase and "unzipped" the genes by breaking Hydrogen Bonds.
You then Acted like DNA polymerase by adding NEW nucleotides to EACH side (we used Yellow Deoxyribose to signify the "new" strand)

We finished up with two IDENTICAL DNA strands, each composed of ONE NEW strand and on OLD (TEMPLATE) Strand

Missed today?  Here is a good video from Mr.Anderson that details DNA replication as well.

Sick days Snow days DNA Days... Oh my!!!

Last Thursday I was out of the District and you guys worked through the open notes quiz.  

 On Friday I looked and felt like a big peice of crap soooooooooooo..................  

You guys got an extra day for the daily question quiz!!!  Instead you watched a Bill Nye Episode on discoveries in Genetics as a nice intro to topics we will be discussing over the next couple months.

TODAY you had a beautiful Two hour delay which put a bit of a damper on my plans to start going through DNA replication 

- but alas..... Online tutorials to our rescue!!

The Daily Question quiz was on Study Island.  

I then encouraged you to go through a couple different online interactive DNA replication sites. 

 Here were some of my favorites and was REALLY excited to see what you guys came up with as you explored this on your own. 

WE EVEN HAD MORE THAN THREE COMPUTERS WORKING AT ONE TIME TODAY :) :) :)

RECORD LOW number of "out of commision" computers!!! #MissEhasnothingelsebettertodothanfixcomputers, #thanksmr.colianni   #ilovemacsbutneednewones!!!!!

Most of you STARTED with this site.....

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/molecules/builddna/

 Until you got THIS message and just gave up haha............

Then you moved on to a little faster paced replication game.....

http://www.nobelprize.org/educational/medicine/dna_double_helix/dnahelix.html

 Until you realized that it is INSANELY hard to replicate DNA with any sort of efficiency which is EXACTLY what I was hoping you would see.  We will be looking at how Incredibly complex DNA replication is and how AMAZING it is that our cells do this as quick and as efficiently as they do!!!

Some other neat site you guys discovered... my personal favorite in old school "atari" fashion....

http://www.classtools.net/mob/quiz_27/Third_Six_weeks_Cell_Cycle_and_DNA_Replication_KNk6f.htm
OK - So we will go through DNA replication with Knex Models tomorrow and see how well WE can do WITHOUT the aid of technology!! 

Building DNA

Today's Daily Questions:

Based on our notes from Yesterday We started to build DNA molecules using K'nex:

FIRST here was they "key" to all the parts:

We started off Building the "Back Bone" of DNA.  The backbone of DNA is made up of sugar molecules (deoxyribose) bound to phosphate groups.

What you had just created was the TWO backbones (remember that DNA is DOUBLE stranded)

At this point ALL WE HAVE IS THE "BINDING" of our instruction manual

No "Information" is found here - but just like the binding of a book does not contain any information - It is CRUCIAL to keeping the information in order!!

Next up...... A little bit of coding!!!  You built your own "code" on ONE of your strands.

Then using the Base Pairing rules (A-T , G-C) you created the complimentary Strand

Finally, we looked at what held these two strands together....... HYDROGEN BONDS!!!

TADA.... We made a section of DNA!!!  Now we can move forward into DNA replication starting on Friday!!

Remember - DAILY QUESTION QUIZ FRIDAY!!!!

DNA Structure Introduction

Friday we completed a Study Island Assignment (Make sure you do this if you were absent)

We also talked a little more through the difference between eukaryotic and prokaryotic cell division

BEFORE the Daily Question Quiz we went over the Study Island Assignment and you worked through the worksheet that we used as our Daily Questions today.

We started our "Vacation" in the S phase with the basics of DNA structure.  We will be building DNA models tomorrow.

Then we had Hank Green Give us a review of what I just taught and a little into DNA replication.