Illustration

DNA is a short notation for Deoxyribosenucleic Acid. DNA is located in all living things. It holds all the information about who we are. DNA knows how to makes copies of itself through a process called replication.

The goal of this demonstration is to help visitors learn about self-assembly by looking at DNA.

Materials:

  • 1 floor mat
  • 3 paddles with Velcro and an A
  • 3 paddles with Velcro and a T
  • 2 paddles with magnets and a G
  • 2 paddles with magnets and a C

Procedure

Set-up:

  1. Put mat out on the floor
  2. Separate on T, G, C and 2 A paddles

During the demonstration

  1. Have visitors guess what the mat represents. Explain that DNA is a very complicated molecule.
  2. Then hand out the T, G, C and 2 A paddles to visitors and ask them to stand on the corresponding spot on the mat.
  3. Hand out the other paddles and ask the group to "self-assemble".
  4. Once the group has found there partners, ask them how they found each other. Only the C and G (north and south magnets) and the T and A (Velcro) can connect. Explain that the process of making DNA is even more complicated but nature has created a way that scientists hope to take advantage of and even mimic to make things as simple as very small tubes and as complex as storing millions of bits of information like a computer.

Explanation

DNA, like almost everything in the body builds itself. This is called self-assembly. Rather than using a series of complicated chemical reactions, chemists would like to mimic what happens in nature. They would like complicated molecules to “build themselves”. In fact, scientists as using DNA as a building block for nano-wires. These tiny wires could shrink the size of computers, make extra strong textiles and help transport very precise quantities of materials.

Procedure Sheet: dna_procedure.pdf

DNA FAQs

DNA is a short notation for Deoxyribosenucleic Acid. DNA is located in all living things. It holds all the information about who we are. DNA knows how to makes copies of itself through a process called replication.

Cool Facts

  • Nearly every one of the trillions of cells in your body contains DNA.
  • Your DNA is different from every other person in the world, unless you are an identical twin. Then your twin and you share the same DNA.
  • Your DNA holds the information about what you look like. Your DNA determines your eye color, hair color, and many other characteristics.
  • If we combined the DNA from all of our trillions of cells in our bodies, it would be over 1 trillion meters longs. That means if we stretch our DNA from the Earth to the Sun it can go up and back 5 times!!!
  • You can extract DNA from any thing that was alive, even bananas!!!

A: DNA is in the shape of a double helix. A double helix looks like a spiral stair case. The steps of the staircase are formed when two chemicals called bases combine together. There are four bases in DNA, A,C,T, and G. When forming the steps only A can combine with T and C can combine with G.

A: DNA is very small; from one side of a step in the double helix to the other side is only 2 nanometers. DNA in our cells is close to a meter long it contains 3,000,000,000 “steps”. Luckily DNA is very thin and folds easily to fit into your cells.

A : When your cells divide your DNA divides also, your DNA splits down the middle in to the strands that make up the stair case. As the strands divide they each form a new staircase of DNA. This process is called replication.

A: The order of the bases is determined by the strand that splits off from a previous strand of DNA. Because only A can combine with T on the opposite strand and G can combine with C, your DNA knows the order of bases in the opposite strand of DNA it makes. For instance if your DNA splits and the order of the bases is AGCT then the opposite strand it will form a stair case with has to be TCGA.

DNA helps to define who we are and how we are different from one another. DNA links us to our mothers and our fathers. We pass our DNA on to our children. DNA helps to solve crimes and cure diseases. It can be said that DNA is everywhere!!!!

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Build a DNA Molecule
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