In a fun and interactive two-day lesson, learners sort anole lizard pictures by appearance. Next, they watch a video about the anoles and re-sort based on the information in the video. In addition to physical characteristics, budding...

Before a cell replicates, its DNA must replicate. Take advantage of a hands-on guided lesson to teach budding scientists how this happens. Using a set of nucleotide cards, learners become the DNA and work to create matching strands...

Everyone loves a good mystery ... can your class actually solve one? Partnered pupils take on the role of forensic investigators during a three-part activity focusing on DNA evidence processing. Learners discover the methods used to...

How do reverse transcriptase inhibitors work? Young virologists examine the function of azidothymidine, a drug doctors use to treat HIV patients, during a hands-on modeling activity. Groups create a strand of DNA from an HIV RNA strand...

String up a message. Pupils string together colored beads to code a word or short phrase. Each color represents one of the four DNA bases. Using a combination of three bases, learners create an amino acid that stand for each letter of...

Get your class to take a closer look at DNA. Pupils conduct research to determine the methods used by scientists to analyze the molecular structure of DNA. The class members investigate different types of molecular imaging along with gel...

How effective are cells at repairing UV damage? An inquiry-based lesson has learners experiment with organism by exposing them to various levels of UV light and then examining their DNA after a period of time. Pupils test different...

How did the Ebola virus first infect humans? Young virologists examine genetic sequences from the 2014 Sierra Leone outbreak to find similarities during a riveting activity. Following similar methods used by MIT and Harvard, partners...

Rotating through five stations, evolutionary biologists explore the question of how changes in DNA facilitate the changes in a population over time. High-quality, colorful cards of animals, skeletons, skulls, and DNA sequences can all be...

Match my cereal sequence. Pupils view a sequence made by colorful cereal rings and create copies of it. Learners must either remember or write down the sequence to transport the code to another location. Scholars replicate the cereal...

Can you identify mutations just by viewing DNA sequences? Scholars apply prior knowledge of DNA sequences to do just that in an engaging activity. They transcribe and translate genes, thus identifying the locations of mutations. Then,...

Compare what shells look like on the outside with what makes that happen on the inside. Scholars begin by sorting an various seashells by their physical characteristics into phylogenetic trees. They then conduct a DNA comparison of...

Does where we live influence how our bodies express genetic traits? Explore variation in human skin color with an activity that incorporate video and hands-on learning. Individuals model the relationship between phenotypes and genotypes,...

Need an a-maize-ing lesson to show your class how regulatory genes work? If you use the well-written resource, they'll be all ears! Biology scholars discover the gene responsible for the evolution of the modern-day corn plant through a...

You may not know if that zebrafish in your fish tank is a model citizen—but it is definitely a model organism! What can we learn about ourselves from a tiny zebrafish? Discover more about the polygenic trait of skin color through a...

Around 50 million years ago, the mammalian ancestor of today's whales returned to the ocean. In this genomics science fair project, you will use mitochondrial protein sequencing to trace the evolution of whales and identify their closest...

This site is an advanced level hands-on activity to explain the Di-deoxy sequencing of DNA.

Get a feel for how to read a DNA sequence from several links located on this site.

Based off of the hit television show NUMB3RS, this lesson has student find the level of similarity between two different-length strands of DNA. Connections to Djikstra's algorithm are mentioned, and students learn more to follow careful...

In this project, you'll learn how to isolate DNA from onion cells, separating it from other cellular components in a manner that still preserves its structure and sequence. In the end, you'll have enough DNA to see with the unaided eye,...

For this activity, students create a bracelet of beads using DNA code. Each letter represents an amino acid and is three beads. The authors suggest that even younger students would enjoy this activity, although older students will...

Students reinforce their knowledge that DNA is the genetic material for all living things by modeling it using toothpicks and gumdrops that represent the four biochemicals (adenine, thiamine, guanine, and cytosine) that pair with each...

This lab illustrates how the order of nucleotides in DNA determines the order of amino acids in proteins. Relates DNA function to that of RNAand provides an exercise to demonstrate how mutations may occur. Includes a lesson plan and...

Do you like solving mysteries? In this experiment, you can find out how a DNA fingerprint can help you figure out whodunit. The answer might just be in the "sequence" of events.