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!