Monday, April 18th

The Dye/Indicator Lab Separation of Molecules of Using Agarose Gel Electrophoresis (Packet) Students get familiar with the electrophoresis equipment by practicing inserting a food coloring/gycerol mixture into the wells with a micropipette. Students may also run the machine to see the dyes separate out. Homework: From packet due Tuesday, April 19th 1) Stuff to know before you go 2) Recreate a flow chart

Friday, April 15th

Today we began work that will prepare us for next week where we will be doing DNA lab work. Today we introduced micropipettes and practiced using them by working with dye samples. We also used a centrifuge to mix dyes together and then practiced extracting the small amounts of dye.

Thursday, April 14th

DNA Extraction Lab Students extracted their DNA using a salt solution, dish soap solution, and ethanol. Each student extracted his/her own DNA and then put their DNA into a small container that they attached to string to make a necklace.

Wednesday, April 13th

We bridged the gap today between the presentations of 12-1 and the DNA extraction lab that we will be doing on Thursday with some background lecture. Over the background lecture we covered the following information: 1) Why scientists were intrigued by the structure of DNA 2) Components of a nucleotide 3) Structure of DNA -bases, base pairing, hydrogen bonding 4) Number of base pairs in the human genome

Tuesday, April 12th

Half Day: Science HSPE Testing
Periods: 25 minutes long

Finished presentations of section 12-1
Assignment: 12-1 worksheet to help pull out the important concepts of 12-1
Due: Friday

Monday April, 11th

We started our section on DNA today.

Instead of assigning notes for section 12-1 we divided it amongst groups in class to present and teach the rest of the class, who then take notes on their peers' presentations.

Students had 25-30 minutes to read their section, prepare to teach it, and prepare a visual to accompany their presentations.

Presentations took the rest of the period and will carry into tomorrow.

Reflection of Monday, Apirl 11th

We started our DNA unit today. Instead of having students do section 12-1 as notes for homework to turn in later this week, we divided the class into groups and divided up the section. Students had 25-30 minutes to read their section and prepare to teach it to the class. A visual was required.

We started presentations and got about half way through the classes to be carried over into tomorrow. Tomorrow is a half day so the presentations are probably about all we will have time for.

I liked changing up the notes homework into something they could do in class, and this section worked out nicely for it because it was essentially background information on the scientists and experiments that helped to contribute to our knowledge of DNA today.

If I could change anything for the future I think I would do a hook to get kids excited about learning DNA, because it has lots of cool applications in today's world.