Activities for engaging students in Biology using animations

Created Nov. 5, 2024 by Stacey Kiser, Sam Donovan, Justin Pruneski

Sam Donovan

University of Pittsburgh

sdonovan@pitt.edu

Introduction/Instructions

The goal of this assignment is two-fold. First, it is an opportunity for you to engage with the complex biological processes that we are studying in this section of class. Because replication, transcription and translation cannot be observed directly we will use animations to help us actively engage with the content and build up our mental models of the how these processes work. The second goal involves helping you develop skills for studying from diverse learning resources. The questions listed below are examples of the ways you can systematically check your understanding as you study.

I recommend opening each animation in its own browser windows so you can move back and forth between them as you study the processes. You might also want to start by identifying the major elements (e.g., DNA polymerase, ribosome, single stranded DNA) and processes (e.g., unzipping DNA, initiation of transcription, peptide bond formation) and how they are represented in each animation.

You can follow this link to a web version of this assignment (and a few extra resources) that makes it easier to follow the links. http://bit.ly/Week2Recitation

DNA Replication

Bidirectional growth animation from Molecular Cell Biology

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK21650/figure/A3167/

DNA replication (basic detail) from HHMI

http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/dna/DNAi_replication_vo1.html

 

Q1: Explain how each DNA strand that is being replicated has both leading and lagging strands.

Q2: Which features of DNA replication are not well represented in the HHMI animation?

Q3: Find a different DNA replication animation on the web and save the link. Describe something that your animation shows particularly well.

Transcription

Transcription animation from Biological Science

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1183426/BIOSC0160/Transcription.html

DNA transcription (basic detail) from HHMI

http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/dna/DNAi_transcription_vo1.html

 

Q1: Which features of transcription are not well represented by either of these animations?

Q2: List 2 questions that you have about transcription after studying these animations.

Q3: Find a different DNA transcription animation on the web and save the link. Describe something that your animation simplifies that was presented in more detail in one of the other animations.

Translation

Translation animation from Biological Science

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1183426/BIOSC0160/Translation.html

Translation (basic detail) from HHMI

http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/dna/DNAi_translation_vo1.html

 

Q1: Describe something that each animation helped you understand better about translation.

Q2: List 2 questions that you have about translation after studying these animations.

Q3: Find a different DNA translation animation on the web and save the link. Would you recommend it to another student to use to study translation? Why?

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