CIBTs Building Blocks of Life Lego Lab

I found CIBTs Building Blocks of Life lab a couple of years ago, but hadn't found the time to look at it closely and prep the materials for it. You can access all of their files here. Since we ended our school year early last year due to COVID, I spent some time prepping for this lab. To my delight, my Honors Biology class was able to do this lab in person this year. 

The Substrate

For prepping this lab, I found the needed Legos for the lab kits with a quick trip to our local Lego store wall of Legos and then glued the substrates together for each lab group. I felt a little like Mr. Business in the Lego movie with the "Kragle", but I got past it. The Lego wall didn't have a couple of the specific pieces needed for the kit, so we improvised. 

It's hard to see, but this is 3 flat pieces stacked.

All the Legos for 5-6 lab groups fit in this little container.

Part of what drew me to this lab was bringing together the Central Dogma...DNA is the template for RNA is the template for proteins, mutations, and how a mutation may change the shape and often the function of an enzyme.

Besides collecting the needed Legos, I also converted the pdf student lab into a Google Doc so that my students could complete the written portion electronically.

A mutated enzyme

Students first used the instructions to put together the Lego enzymes from an un-mutated sequence.  Then they worked on reading the mutated sequences and translating them into new enzymes, trying to predict if their enzymes would function correctly. It was a very hands-on way of seeing the principle of form follows function.

One of the mutated enzymes

Here are all of the links to the converted Google Docs that I made for the lab.

CIBT Student Background Information

CIBT Building Blocks of Life Lab

CIBT Enzyme Worksheet Page

Computational Thinking in the Process of Translation of a Protein

When my Analytical Biology (Honors Bio) class got to the topics of heredity and molecular genetics I decided to try out an activity found in the January 2018 edition of The American Biology Teacher. The title of the article was, Algorithms, Abstractions, and Iterations: Teaching Computational Thinking Using Protein Synthesis Translation. It's available for free here. The author was talking about how the process of translation mirrored the computational thinking in computer science and programming languages.  This ties in well with the NGSS science practice of computational thinking. 

Students started by working through the free app Light Bot: Code Hour. As they progressed through the levels, they learned about loops, if-then statements, and procedures. My kids (who are 8th and 9th graders) loved this. We dedicated a whole 80 minute block to working through the app. There was great collaboration when students got stuck and cheers of success when the challenge was solved.  

Then students moved onto understanding the process of translation and working on describing the process as if it were programming code.

When we did this in class, we discussed as a group what some of the commands would be and then they diagramed out the process of translation using those commands in loops and if-then statements as well as procedures that repeat multiple times. We printed out the basic commands, students cut them out and used chalk markers to create their "program" on the desks. 

As a bonus, our technology teacher coordinated with me as she had students begin an animation project in Google Slides. Students had to create an animation of transcription or translation.  She helped them with the technical issues of creating their animation and I helped them with the scientific accuracy. They were fabulous!

Transcription and Translation Modeling in Biology

4 different already "Unzipped" DNA strands 

When deciding what we'd do in class to help students understand the process of transcription and translation several blog posts gave me inspiration.  I had just done the transcription translation lab from Kim Foglia in AP Bio and I read these posts on making proteins out of beads on the Science Matters blog. Inspiration struck to combine these two labs into one for my class.

RNA nucleotides ready for transcription

I started the process backwards, by deciding which amino acids would be in the finished proteins. Since the pack of beads I already had at home only had 7 different colors, there were only 7 types of amino acids in our proteins. Two of the designed proteins were identical. I wanted students to be able to see that two strands of mRNA with different orders of nucleotides could produce the same protein because there are multiple codons that code for the same amino acid.  The visual also helps during discussions of silent mutations.

Using DNA as the template for transcription

Next, I wrote the mRNA code for each protein, making sure that I used different codons for the amino acids in the matching proteins. Then I wrote the DNA code that would be transcribed into our mRNA strands.  I felt a little like reverse transcriptase as this point! Now that I had all of the codes I wanted, it was time to prepare the model materials,

I made the beaded proteins and labeled them with a number and set them aside as an answer key for students to check when they were finished. I used a sheet of DNA molecules from Biology Corner, and used the RNA nucleotides from Kim Foglia's lab.  I color coded each DNA nucleotide we would use in the lab, laminated them, and lined them up in the correct order for each of the 4 DNA strands that we would start with in the lab. I taped the line of DNA together with two long strips of packing tape-one on the front and one on the back.  I wanted to make sure it was super sturdy since I wanted it to last for several years (OK, true confession, I want them to last forever). This was time consuming, but hopefully won't need to be repeated any time soon (unless someday I have a class with more than 4 lab groups).

Amino acids ready for translation

Kim Foglia's RNA nucleotides fit perfectly with the DNA from Biology Corner, so I printed each type of nucleotide on a different color paper and laminated them before cutting them all out. These I just put in containers for students to take as they are modeling the process of transcription as they build their mRNA molecule.  Since each RNA nucleotide (A, C, G, and U) is a different color, it's easy for us to hold each lab groups' finished mRNA molecules together to compare them.

After they finish transcribing their mRNA molecules, students move onto translating the mRNA code into a protein. Once the proteins are made, we can compare them. We focus on protein 1 and 4, which match. Then we go back to the mRNA molecules and observe that they are not the same.  At this point we can look at the codon chart, talk about multiple codons for the same amino acid, and what it means to have a silent mutation.

Comparing mRNA from strand 1 and 4 since they built identical proteins 

Here's the link to the student lab. And here's the link to the lists of DNA, mRNA, and protein strands.

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.