Mrs. Meyer’s sixth grade science class has been learning about DNA. To better understand what DNA is, the student’s performed a hands-on activity where they used candy to make their own DNA strands. Each student was given two pieces of licorice along with twelve gumdrops and six toothpicks. The students then had to make six segments of DNA using the gumdrops to represent adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine. Each student was given the sequence of CGACTT and they had to make the complimentary strand to go along with it which was GCTGAA. The students remembered that C and G always pair together and A and T always pair together. Once the students completed their DNA strands, they twisted them to see if they can make it look like the double helix. The students really enjoyed this activity, especially being able to eat the candy when they were finished.
