"It's All In Your Genes!"
Make Your Own DNA Strand
By Jim V.

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Wouldn't you just love to make your own model of a DNA strand? You can do it by following these instructions. This is another activity that we got from our visit to the Medical College of Wisconsin Center for Science Education, which is located in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. The Medical College sponsors labs for elementary through high school students. The Medical College has given us permission to share this activity.

If you don't know a lot about DNA, you may wish to visit Jim's DNA page before creating your model.

This is what you need

This Is How to Put Your DNA Strand Together

1. The first thing you need to do is to choose a starting and stopping code for each of the three traits (genes) that you'll be making. Genes on a DNA strand have start codes and stop codes. You can make your start code by randomly picking three slips of paper from your cup. Use those three colored beads as your start codes for each of your traits (keep them in the order you picked them). Write down your start code.

2. Do that again and those three colored beads will be your stop code. Write them down.

3. Now that you decided on your basic information it's time to start the activity, so you'll need to put your starting code on one side of the pipe cleaner. Do not put anything on the other side of the pipe cleaner until later.

4. Next you'll need to create your first code (trait) for your DNA strand. This code needs to be six nucleic acids (beads) long. To create your first trait, you'll need to randomly draw six paper slips from your cup and write down the colors in the order that you chose them. Add these six nucleic acids (beads) after the starting code that you made earlier.

5. Next you need to place the ending code (from #2) after the first trait.

6. Now redo steps 3, 4, and 5 two more times.

7. Now you have the first half of your DNA strand done and it's time to create the second half. To do this, you'll need to know which two nucleic acids (colored beads) pair up together. Those colors will always go together on the opposite sides of the DNA strand. For example, I used beads with the colors green, blue, red, and yellow. I assigned the colors as follows: (T) thymine/blue, (A) adenine/yellow, (C) cytosine/green, and (G) guanine/red. I paired them together like this, Blue+Yellow, Green+Red, because on a real DNA strand, T will always pair up with A, and C will always pair up with G. So, to make the second half, you need to pair up the nucleic acids. For example, if my starting code (beads) were (Red) (Blue) (Green) on the first pipe cleaner, on the second pipe cleaner I would put (Green) (Yellow) (Red). Keep pairing up your nucleic acids on the second pipe cleaner until you are finished.

8. Since real DNA is actually shaped like a twisted ladder, you'll need to twist your pipe cleaners around each other. Twist the ends of the pipe cleaners together. There you have it, DNA!

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