Revising Transcription and Translation for AP Biology

I just finished the Transcription/Translation Lab from Kim Foglia with my AP Bio class.  Last year when we did it, we decided that there was too much cutting and taping involved and not enough time being able to keep our eyes on the concepts.  This year, I gave lab groups only half of the DNA strip and then we put our DNA strands together.  This was a huge time saver.  It also helped that I laminated and cut out all of the RNA nucleotides, so the students didn't have to do it (and ideally, I won't have to do it again either). We completed the translation process together.  Then the students went back into their groups and worked through each of the mutation sections.  But I still felt like it took far too long. Next year, I'll assign a different mutation to each group and then have them explain/demonstrate the effects to the rest of the class.

For extra practice going through the process of transcription and translation, we'll add a little competition and have transcription/translation races.  The "proteins" built will be sayings, with words substituted in for the amino acids. The idea came from doing the Foglia lab and seeing a pin on Pinterest of a product by AwesomeScience. I googled 5 word sayings and found several interesting ones at http://www.lifestalker.com/21-simple-yet-powerful-five-word-quotes/ and http://hubpages.com/education/5-word-quotes.  At first I though I'd make my own tRNA molecules so everything would be typed.  As much as I love Google Drawings, a few minutes in, I decided instead to use Foglia's blank tRNA molecules and write the words and anti-codons in myself. I laminated them in hopes that I wouldn't have to do it again.

The tRNA molecules are placed on a table at the front of the room, and as students finish transcription and are in the process of translation, they come up and chose one tRNA molecule at a time that complements the mRNA strand they've made. Students actually have a full sheet of paper to write in their transcription and translation and also answer a few questions to highlight some of the important, but often forgotten nuances of transcription and translation.

Here is the link to the modified Kim Foglia Transcription and Translation Lab. And here is the link to the Transcription Translation Races. For this document, the answer key is first and then each of the following pages is for each of the 7 different sayings. I think I caught all of my typos in the DNA strands, but if I missed one, let me know.