More Steps on How to Make a Structure of DNA (Third Grade Experiments continued)
6. Lay the yellow clay ropes parallel to each other, about an inch and a half apart or the size of your toothpicks.
7. Begin laying the toothpicks down in the middle of the yellow clay ropes, attaching the yellow clay onto the ends of the toothpicks.
8. When attaching your clay, make sure the order of your toothpicks vary. For example, you can place two red‐blue sticks with both the reds on the left first then follow this with three green‐purple sticks with the greens on the right. Then this can be follow by a red‐blue stick with the blue on the left this time. Have fun with it, but make sure you alternate the colors and switch the sticks around.
9. Once you're done attaching all 20 sticks, hold your yellow rope (which now holds all your sticks together) and slowly curve the ropes counterclockwise so that your DNA line curls gently. You don't want full twists, just gentle curves, about one curve every four sticks should be okay. You will see that you are creating a sort of spiral.
10. Place your DNA chain on some illustration board so that it doesn't get stepped on or ruined.
A large part of our genes resides in our DNA. When Gregor Mendel noticed the inheritance in his pea plants, he didn't realize that genetic code was being passed down via DNA. Our parents’ DNAs combine and create a new unique DNA which is inside us. This is why we may have blue eyes like our daddy, but red hair like our mom’s. DNA is very important in genetics, and this experiment has just shown you how it looks like.
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