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.