Genetics Education Teaching Tools
DNA and Cell Division Exercises for High School & College
Here are links to free worksheets that can help science educators assess students' understanding of cell division, DNA transcription and translation.
Assess Students before the Test
When teaching a high school or college-level course, particularly if you have a large class size or short-term course, it is not always easy to get a sense of the students' comprehension of materials prior to the exam. Additional assessments mean more correcting and work for the instructor.
However, there are some worksheets that are easy to implement and correct, that can give instructors a sense of how well students are grasping the essential concepts being taught. Evaluating students prior to an exam or quiz allows the instructor to help learners span the gap that sometimes occurs between lecture and comprehension.
Online Support Materials for Genetics Lectures
The following links will take you to lecture web pages that are used as support material for three genetics lectures within a college 100-level cell biology course. On each of these pages are worksheets that can be used to quickly and easily assess the students’ level of understanding.
Genetics Worksheets
DNA Transcription, Translation and Marshmallow Sandwiches
The transcription and translation worksheet that can be accessed through this link allows students to demonstrate their understanding of the transcription of DNA to RNA (remember, uracil not thymine). Students also are asked to translate the DNA code into proteins, and the worksheet includes a table for converting the codon language into amino acids. Best of all, this worksheet also allows the students to practice translation by translating each codon into the ingredients for building a delicious marshmallow sandwiche (instead of proteins). A table translating codons into the ingredients for the treat is also included in this exercise.
This link takes you to a webpage with support materials for a mitosis lecture. One of the items included on the page is a simple mitosis worksheet. Students are asked to draw what happens to four chromosomes (2 homologous pair) during the course of mitotic cell division.
This exercise is very effective in revealing whether or not the student genuinely understands what is taking place during interphase, prophase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase. Student often try to merely memorize the words that explain each of these subphases, without conceptually grasping what the cell is actually doing and why. By using this exercise, the instructor can clearly see whether the student truly understands, or is merely copying down what they see in the book.
This link takes you to a webpage with support materials for a meiosis lecture. One of the items included on the page is a simple meiosos worksheet. Students are asked to draw what happens to four chromosomes (2 homologous pair) during the course of gamete formation.
Like the mitosis worksheet, this exercise is also helpful in revealing whether or not the student genuinely understands what is taking place during the two cycles of interphase, prophase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase. Student often memorize that “the diploid dividing cell gives rise to haploid gametes,” without having any concept of what that actually means. This exercise enables the instructor to clearly see whether the student understands or is again merely copying down depictions of meiosis that they see in the textbook.
More Genetics Information
For tips on making the most of classroom technology, see the Suite101 article Effective PowerPoint Lectures, or find easy-to-understand genetics information in the Suite101 articles Nucleotides & Nucleic Acids, What Is Mitotic Cellular Division, Meiosis & Sexual Reproduction, and Mitosis & Meiosis Comparison.
