Tech in Teach! How Tech Helped Students Through a Protein Synthesis Adventure....

                  In class we learned about the variety of tech uses in the classroom to improve student learning. One of the conflicts with teaching molecular biology is that students cannot physically hold the different components of DNA due to their micro size. I understand their frustration because I had the same issue when I was first learning about DNA replication and protein synthesis I wanted a model that I could hold. Unfortunately the school I attended did not have sufficient funds to obtain the necessary materials, bummer! I wanted my students to get the opportunity to actually “build” their own proteins and I knew that technology could make this possible!

                 Students in my honors biology classes had just recently build DNA models using Twizzlers and gummy bears but unfortunately there are not enough gummy bears to code for the different amino acids. Instead I decided to take students to the computer lab where they will work through building their own protein. 

                        I recognize that some students might work faster than others, so I differentiated the lesson. Note: my differentiated lesson allowed for those students that worked at a faster pace (Tier 3)  to have supplemental websites to more complex explanations to protein synthesis after completing the base module. Those students that learn at a slower pace (Tier 2) were given sufficient time to complete the base module that included the content that was to be learned from the lesson. For those students that learn at an “average” pace (Tier 1), they were to complete the base module and could move on to the next websites. This differentiated lesson allowed all students to go through the base module that contained the content taught during the lesson and work at their own pace.

                     Before going to the computer lab, I explained this to the students before heading to the computer lab. I was worried that students would receive this as being grouped in different intelligence levels, but instead they surprised me because I saw how many of them felt relieved that the entire class didn’t have to be working on the same thing at the same time! Below, I will walk you through the adventure my students took to build their own protein.

                    Thanks to the University of Utah for creating this great website where students can immerse themselves in transcribing and translating the message for making a protein. In this website, students are given the starting DNA sequence and they have to transcribe the mRNA sequence. The students then had to “decode” the message to figure out what amino acid to drag into the sequence and see their protein being built before their eyes! They first had to find the RNA sequence AUG, this is also known as the starting codon. Once the students found the start codon (the program did not let students move on with building their protein before finding the start codon) they began decoding the rest of the sequence to build their protein. At the end they received a picture of the protein they built!

            The learning goal of this computer lab activity was for students to be able to identify the mRNA sequence form a given DNA sequence and be able to identify the amino acids coded by that mRNA to build a protein. This computer lab activity was a supplemental to the in-class worksheet that students that finished the base module moved on to the following modules to see enzymes in action and a more complex look into DNA replication, transcription and translation. To see a copy of the worksheet that students were given click below:

                                  Tech in Teach- Protein Folding Worksheet

           Although this activity could be done (and was done prior to the computer lab activity) without technology, it was more organized for the students to have their own computer and work through the problem alone. I felt that using technology enhanced student understanding due to the responses I received in their post computer lab worksheet. This helped us teachers (my mentor teacher and I) because we did not have to obtain materials for the entire 90 students we have in total. This also allowed for students to work on their own as opposed to having to be in groups and having to all share the material and not each getting the opportunity to build their own.  Technology also allowed me to use resources from other institutions (University of Utah) to improve student learning. Having technology facilitated the differentiated  lesson I had plan for my students. Incorporating technology into the science classroom has facilitated student learning through not only providing students with a visual representation of what occurs in the molecular level but also through providing students with an opportunity to explore the different processes involved in protein folding.