Friday January 29th - DNA replication Daily Question Quiz and Mitosis Crash Course

Loads of fun this week learning about DNA replication - Now to see if you can SHOW me what you learned!!  Click on the image below to get started on the Daily Question Quiz!
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NEXT - We have started into Mitosis and I am going to let Hank Green tell you a little bit about this.  Using the worksheet I provided for you - watch the following video and answer questions about Mitosis.

Thursday January 28th - Introduction to Mitotic Division (Mitosis)

We our DONE with our "vacation in the S phase."  Like ALL vacations though..... it was absolutely CRITICAL to the life of the cell.  A cell cannot divide until it has an entire copy of its instruction manual. Our Goals have changed but the reminders are pretty much the same:

I printed out the daily questions for you today since there were so many - This allowed you to spend MORE time actually looking for answers.  Here is a rundown of the questions:

Next.......... INTO Mitosis!!

Wednesday January 27th - DNA replication Activity and Wrap Up

Well...... TODAY was certainly interesting.  FIRST you came into the classroom looking a little different than normal..... 

It SORT of looked like a dance floor...... which would not be out of the realm of possibilities in this class.. But.... ALAS.... It was to go through DNA replication!

Our Goals have not changed - they are still what we had been focusing on since Monday.  Reminders are pretty much the same as well.

BEFORE we got into "acting out" DNA replication - we started with the following Daily Questions.  The first two are really just an algebra equation (and you thought you would NEVER use algebra outside of math class!!)

THEN......  since I am noticing that this concept of DNA replication being semi-conservative being a relatively difficult concept to grasp I have added one MORE activity to the mix.  We have watched animations of it online.  We have draw out and colored DNA strands.  We have used the K'nex models... and NOW....  we ACTED OUT DNA replication.   It was an interesting task for sure :)

FIRST - we created the "original" DNA sequence (the two "parent" strands)

In this case it was Nucleotides that were on black paper.

Next up..... Our DNA HELICASE!!!!  Sporting their pair of scissors to "snip through" the hydrogen bonds!

The next scene includes another set of important characters....  DNA polymerase.  These guys showed up with balloons on their heads because... well......... why NOT????

What did they do??  They added new nucleotides to either side of the parent DNA

End Result????

TWO genetically identical DNA molecules!!  Each one of the DNA molecules contains one "Parent" strand and one "Daughter" strand.   This is what is meant by Semi-conservative.

What does this look like in the cell?
If you check out the following video from 1:40 - 2:50 you will see this "machinery" at work.

The final part of DNA replication that I wanted you to be aware of was the differences between DNA replication in prokaryotic cells vs eukaryotic cells.  SINCE  prokaryotic DNA is packaged differently AND is found in the cytoplasm - DNA replication will proceed a bit differently.

Eukaryotic DNA, though, has it MUCH harder since there is MUCH more DNA.  So this is a little about that.
Finally.......  most classes had a little extra time sooo...... check out the new song I found for you guys ;)

DONE with DNA Replication!!!  Now onto Mitosis starting tomorrow :)

Monday and Tuesday January 25th and 26th - DNA Replication in Detail

The past few days have been full of coloring and crash coursing it and K'nex modeling it.....   It's been pretty active in class these past two days learning about DNA replication.  The reminders and goals for both Monday and Tuesday were the same:

Yesterday was Day one of DNA replication in detail.  We started the class off with the following daily questions.   We spent a LOT of time on these and were very careful to draw out DNA replication.

I added one more drawing of this.  The thing to keep in mind here are the COLORS of the different DNA strands.  You will notice that at the END (the bottom two DNA molecules) - Each one is composed of one ORIGINAL DNA strand (The blue strand) and one NEW DNA strand (the green strand)

 That second question was really still referring to the the first question.  It is KEY to understand this concept of DNA replication being "semi conservative"!

We then got down a couple notes to prep us for another activity that we did today:

Today's Daily Questions went RIGHT along with these two slides and led us into an activity using the K'nex models.

First we acted like DNA HELICASE and "Unzipped the genes."  What does THAT mean????  Well FIRST we need to know what the "zipper" is made up of to begin with - The nucleotide strands are held together by HYDROGEN BONDS.  So the role of these Helicases are to break hydrogen bonds

Next up - We acted Like DNA POLYMERASE and started adding new nucleotides to either side at the "replication fork."  How did we KNOW what to add????  We used the base pairing rules A-T and C-G

and FINALLY..... We ended up with TWO IDENTICAL DNA Molecules - each consisting of one "Old" Strand (the gray backbone) and one "New" Strand (the yellow backbone)

Then you started on a worksheet to see how much of this you retained (and showed me that hopefully this time working with the K'nex models helped your comprehension of the subject more rather than take you back to your younger days of just building roller coasters with K'nex models....?!?!)

Here was the general concept of the worksheet

Cell Cycle and DNA Structure Daily Question Quiz - DNA Replication Interactive Assignment

Click on the link or the picture to start the daily question quiz

Cell Cycle and DNA Structure Daily Question Quiz

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THEN......  Watch the following Crash Course Video and on a Note card - Tell me Four things about the STRUCTURE of DNA and Four things about DNA REPLICATION.  These can be quick bulleted points.  ou do NOT need to write complete sentences. 

Thursday January 21st DNA structure and Function Day 2

We had the same goals as yesterday and similar reminders..... 

(Except the give someone a hug thing.... It was "National Hug Day" today)

Daily Questions:

Then we continued with our Notes and Activities on the Structure and Function of DNA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAND - I let you watch this hilariously terrible DNA video ;)

Finally - I gave you an introduction to what we will start into Tomorrow / Monday

Wednesday January 20th - DNA structure and Function Day 1

Goals and Reminders for Today:

We only had ONE daily Question Today because of a graded assessment that came AFTER.

The next 10 minutes you worked through the following assignment and we graded it right here in class.

THEN - into a couple notes about the nucleotide structure and we started to build a strand of nucleotides.

Missed out Discussion on DNA structure?????  Check out the following YouTube clip:

p.s.  Don't worry about 3 prime / 5 prime information - you will not need to know THAT much detail!!