Sickle Cell Investigation: Day 6

Today we had to retreat back to notes just to get clarity on what was going on. I simply had the students answer the first guiding question with notes.

“How does the gene for sickle cell anemia cause such dramatic changes in people’s health?

This brought students through the following:

DNA-> Mutation-> mRNA-> Amino Acid leading to unusual folding of protein -> Clumping of Protein -> Change in cell shape -> Change in cell function -> symptoms of disease

I actually got a new activity that I wanted to try here to teach the students about how the proteins clump. However, I felt that I didn’t have time. I will try new things next year, but sometimes you simply have to pitch the ball right across the plate.

Finally, I went through a powerpoint that was created by miniPCR to explain how gel electrophoresis works.