Genetics and DNA

[Jackie]

My daughter (age 6) has a new science topic of interest. She's read through the Usborne DNA/genetics book and watched Crash Course videos on the topic. We have a Holt high school biology text on hand and can go through that. I figure we'll isolate DNA and build a double helix model. Maybe find bios on Watson and Crick and Rosalind Franklin; better yet, good information on how they made their discoveries. Anything more hands on?

 

Hit me with your best resources for learning about DNA and genetics.

[maize]

How a bit of personal DNA exploration? Family Tree DNA has their Family Finder DNA genealogy kit on sale for $59 right now. If there is a grandparent or great-grandparent alive it can be really fun to get a DNA sample from them and see what bits the grandchild has inherited.

 

These are of course SNP tests not full genome sequences.

https://www.familytreedna.com/products.aspx

[Dmmetler]

Has she done dragon genetics yet? https://serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_edu/waldron/pdf/DragonGenetics2Protocol.doc

[mumto2]

She might enjoy one of the variations of the dna extraction experiment. Here is one on youtube https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vPGKv53zSRQ. There are lots of instructions out there. I think we used Kiwi, it was a long time ago but it worked at home well. I am saying that because a friend paid quite a bit for her child to spend a day doing this in a lab environment.

[chocolate-chip chooky]

We had fun building our own models of DNA, mRNA, tRNA, transcription and translation etc using a range of lollies. A big part of the learning was thinking about all the components we'd need and which lollies would suit the purpose. For example, my daughter came up with a different colour code (using squeezy icing) to make 20 different amino acids using mini marshmallows.

 

We tossed up doing a K'Nex model, but having to plan our own really deepened the learning. And there were lollies everywhere  :001_smile:

 

 

[Dmmetler]

Here are some sites with virtual labs. These may not be hands-on enough for a 6 yr old, but DD has enjoyed experimenting with many of them:

 

https://geneed.nlm.nih.gov/specialty.php?spageID=1

 

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/labs/

 

HHMI has some good stuff, too

http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/genetics

 

Can you tell that we've been playing with biology for about the last 7 years?? :)

 

[daijobu]

Here's an idea that's especially cool if you plan to see extended family over the holidays.  You can have your family test themselves for genetic taste sensitivity using these PTC test strips.   Then you can draw up one of those family trees to see who has which alleles, homozygous or heterozygous.  

 

Edvotek offers really nice (and expensive) gel electrophoresis kits for students, with many different fun experiments, along the lines of run this gel to see who is the guilty person who left their DNA at the scene of the crime.  It was a lot of fun, and their supplementary materials have a lot of theory that is perfect for a curious student.  They also have detailed videos on youtube that you can look at now to see how to run their protocols.  

 

We also used Edvotek's rainbow bacterial transformation, which was a lot of fun.  Plus you get to try out lots of great lab skills.

[scoutingmom]

Here's an idea that's especially cool if you plan to see extended family over the holidays. You can have your family test themselves for genetic taste sensitivity using these PTC test strips. Then you can draw up one of those family trees to see who has which alleles, homozygous or heterozygous.

 

Edvotek offers really nice (and expensive) gel electrophoresis kits for students, with many different fun experiments, along the lines of run this gel to see who is the guilty person who left their DNA at the scene of the crime. It was a lot of fun, and their supplementary materials have a lot of theory that is perfect for a curious student. They also have detailed videos on youtube that you can look at now to see how to run their protocols.

 

We also used Edvotek's rainbow bacterial transformation, which was a lot of fun. Plus you get to try out lots of great lab skills.

I didn't look them up, but I assume the taste steps are paper that you see if you can taste the various flavours? My sister took a genetics course at university and did that one on the family.... I remember that one. Still after step, I would respond that I couldn't taste anything but the paper, but my Dad could taste them. (I could taste a few). My dad said after that no wonder I had been a picky eater growing up.... I couldn't taste the food like he could. I do wonder if age changes those results at all, as people's tastes do change over the years.

 

Sent from my SM-T530NU using Tapatalk