This is the model lesson on the Central Dogma or the discovery of the chemical basis of heredity. Below you will find: one complete version, and four separate files, each a section of the larger file.This version is the latest as of 4/10/09.
The Central Dogma Model lesson addresses the overarching question: How can hereditary material account for the physical similarities and differences among all living things? To evaluate explanations for the basis of the Central Dogma, students are exposed to the scientific discoveries that led to assertions about the flow of information from DNA to protein. Throughout this model lesson, students establish that DNA is the hereditary material and determine its structure from clues that were also available to Watson and Crick when they assembled the molecular structure of DNA. Students are then taken through the process of transcription and translation through a guided inquiry approach where these processes are simulated. Strands of mRNA are made from template strands of DNA, using beads that represent the nucleotides. The model lesson ends with the final evaluation that allows students to consider mistakes in transcription and the resulting changes that occur in transcription.
|
|
