HINSDALE SOUTH HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUM GUIDE
Course: Biology Date: Designer(s):
Topic/Unit 4 - Information
Chapters/Resources:
Chapter 4.1-4.12, 4.15
Chapter 2: pp. 28-31 – Life assembles itself into chains
Chapter 2: pp. 49-51 – Mutations
Course Goals
GOAL 1: Understand the processes of scientific inquiry and technological design to investigate questions, conduct experiments and solve problems.
GOAL 2: Understand the fundamental concepts, principles and interconnections of the life, physical and earth/space sciences.
GOAL 3: Understand the relationships among science, technology and society in historical and contemporary contexts.
Enduring Understandings Essential Questions
Pattern 1: Life builds from the bottom up
Pattern 2: Life assembles itself into chains
Pattern 4: Life uses a few themes to generate many variations
Pattern 5: Life organizes with information
Pattern 6: Life encourages variety by recombining information
Pattern 7: Life creates with mistakes
Course Objectives: Students will be able to… State Framework Item(s)
DuPage Genetics Obj 1
DuPage Org of Cells Obj 1
Describe the link between genes, protein, and characteristics (central dogma of genetics) a.
--- b.
What is the significance of the central dogma of genetics?
Describe the relationship between nucleotides, genes (DNA), chromosomes, allele, and genome a.
--b.
Using the following terms, show the levels of organization of information within living things: chromosomes, genes, genome, nucleotide
What is relationship between a nucleotide and DNA?
What are the three parts of a nucleotide?
DuPage Genetics Obj 2

What is the relationship between genes and DNA?
What is the relationship between DNA and chromosomes?
What is a genome?
What is the relationship between a gene and an allele?
Describe how the structure of DNA determines its function (types of bonds, replication, repair) a.
What are the steps of DNA replication? Be sure to include the role of the enzymes involved in each step. Use the proper names of each enzyme.
b.
Why does DNA replication occur? (Each new cell produced during cell reproduction will need instructions on how it should “behave”)
What are the steps of DNA replication? Be sure to include the role of the enzymes involved in each step.
How does the structure of DNA ensure that an exact copy is made of itself? (Base pairs between complementary bases)
What is the significance of having the hydrogen bonds and covalent bonds where they are within a
DNA molecule?
Describe the cell’s attempts to correct mutations in DNA
What is the structure of a DNA molecule?
What type of attractive force holds the two strands of DNA to one another?
Given a diagram of DNA, identify the following parts: sugar, phosphate, nitrogen base
What are the components of the DNA backbone? (Sugar bonded to phosphate)
Given a DNA strand, state the bases found on the complementary strand
If all DNA is made of sugar, phosphate, and bases, what accounts for the differences between organisms?
What type of bond holds one nucleotide to another within the same strand of DNA?
When does DNA replication occur? (When cells divide)
Name various causes of mutations.
Describe how mutations can lead to cancer.
Describe the utility of various biotechnology techniques (DNA fingerprinting, gene sequencing, karyotyping, PCR) a.
What are the steps of PCR/why are they important?
How is the process of PCR different from DNA replication?
b.
Why is PCR done/What does PCR accomplish?
What is the purpose of gene sequencing?
What kinds of information can a karyotype provide? (Gender, certain genetic disorders, the number of chromosomes)
Analyze a given karyotype.
What does a karyotype show you?
What is the purpose of DNA fingerprinting?
DuPage Genetics Obj 9
DuPage Struct/Funct Obj 5

DNA fingerprinting separates fragments of DNA based on what?
Why is a DNA fingerprint like a real fingerprint?
What information do you get by sequencing a gene?
What sex chromosomes are found in males/females?
Key Labs and Investigations Reading, Etc.
Thermal cycler
DNA Fingerprinting
X_Y Zoo Lab – Parternity Lab - Fingerprinting
Spontaneous Generation
Germ Theory
Lab tech (histo/micro/dna) – come talk to AR kids about careers
Vocabulary
The creation of life from non-living substances
Genes
Proteins
Characteristics
Microorganisms can enter the human body and cause disease
The instructions to make proteins
Molecules that directly determine physical/chemical characteristics
Specific forms of a trait
DNA
Nucleotides
Chromosomes
Genomes
Double Helix
Base Pairs
Deoxyribonucleic acid; the macromolecule that stores hereditary information
Building blocks of DNA
Large portions of an organism’s genome, consisting of DNA and proteins
All the genes within an organism
Describes the shape of DNA, with two strands connected in a “twisted ladder” that run in opposite directions
Describes the attachment of one nitrogen base of a nucleotide on one strand to the nitrogen base of the nucleotide on the opposite/complementary strand of DNA
Bonds that share electrons equally between two atoms Covalent
Hydrogen Bonding
Replication
Complementary
Enzymes
Nucleus
Biotechnology
DNA Fingerprinting
Gene Sequencing
Karyotyping
PCR
Recombinant DNA
The attraction of a positively-charged hydrogen atom to the negatively-charged portion of another molecule
The process of making an exact copy of a segment of DNA
Describes the relationship between nitrogen bases that bond with one another: A with T, C with G
Proteins that speed up chemical reactions
The membrane-bound structure within the nucleus that houses DNA
A collection of techniques used to manipulate living organisms
A technique used to identify and locate specific genetic characteristics (genes, sequences)
A technique used to identify the specific nitrogen base sequence for a gene/genome
A technique used to visualize the specific chromosomes found within a cell
Polymerase chain reaction; a technique used to make multiple copies of a portion of DNA in vitro
A technique used to insert segments of DNA into a pre-existing sequence of DNA

Mutations
Allele
Changes in the nucleotide sequence of an organism’s DNA, resulting in various outcomes
Specific form of a gene
Guiding Questions
Section 4.1 – Why Life Must Come From Life
1.
In the introduction, what is meant by a “self-organizing system”? (A system that that not only follows instructions for its own proper functioning, but can also contains instructions for its own replication, which thus repeats the cycle indefinitely).
2.
What sorts of “observations” led early scientists to believe that life spontaneously arose from non-life? (Seeing worms, maggots, flies, and even mice squirming around in decaying grains, mud, or rotting meat)
3.
Summarize the basic steps followed by Redi in his experiment described in “The Death of Spontaneous Generation” on page 141 (What was his IV,
DV, control and experimental groups, etc.?)
4.
What did Pasteur believe explained the phenomenon of bacteria and yeast appearing within decaying matter? (Contamination of the sample with air and dust, or ferments, that contained these microorganisms)
Section 4.2 – An Abbreviated History of Genetic Discoveries
5.
Briefly summarize the genetic discoveries made during the following time periods: a.
1860s – Gregor Mendel b.
1890s – Chromosomes c.
1903 – Sutton d.
1905 – Wilson and Stevens e.
1906 – Genes f.
1908 – Morgan g.
1909 – Garrod h.
1927 – de Vries, Muller i.
1942 – Geadle, Tatum j.
1944 – Luria, Avery
Section 4.3 – Life’s Coding and Decoding Systems
6.
How is life’s “information” encoded? (A sequence of nucleotides, or genes)
7.
What “decodes” this information? (Proteins)
8.
How is this process a “loop”? Information (DNA) needs machinery (proteins), which needs information (DNA)
Section 4.4 – DNA – What Does It Actually Say?
9.
Why is DNA less like a blueprint, and more like a recipe? (It doesn’t contain an actual image or picture of the final product; rather, it contains a set of instructions to be followed in a particular order, like a recipe)
10.
Briefly describe Beadle and Tatum’s experiment (IV, DV, experimental and control groups)
11.
What was their conclusion?
12.
How does the development of a fruitfly provide evidence that genes are turned “on” and “off” at different times in an organism’s life?
(The fact that certain forms are quite different from one another, with distinct traits, suggests that the instructions for “make legs” isn’t active during the larval stage, but is during its pupa stage)
13.
What is the significance of “imaginal discs”? (These patches of cells remain dormant until instructed to grow into adult structures; they “follow” the instructions to develop at the proper time in development)

14.
Are mutations always bad? Explain why you think so.
Section 4.5 – Nucleotides – Letters on a Backbone
15.
What are the four components of a nucleotide? (A base, sugar, and phosphate)
16.
What are the four types of bases? (Adenine, guanine, thymine, and cytosine)
17.
Look at the picture on the bottom of pages 152 and 153. In your own words, try to explain the analogy of the genetic “hierarchy” to the literary
“hierarchy”
18.
What was Griffith’s conclusion about the harmless and disease-causing pneumococci bacteria? (Something had been released from the dead killer cells and changed their inheritance)
19.
What contribution did Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty make to Griffith’s work? (The transforming agent was DNA)
Section 4.6 – DNA – Base Pairs and Weak Bonds
20.
Why, as the book says, will “the sequence of nucleotides in one chain of DNA… exactly match a… sequence in the other chain”? (The bases are complementary; A will only pair with T, and C with G)
21.
What is the importance of knowing that the bond between the two strands of DNA is a hydrogen bond? (These are relatively weak bonds, which only form at close range. It allows them to separate readily, which they need to do to replicate themselves)
Section 4.7 – DNA – The Double Helix
22.
Explain how DNA’s “spindly ladder” is beneficial. (It is thin, so it can be packed into small spaces. It’s double-ness ensures that it won’t get tangled up on itself, also protecting the nitrogen bases from damage)
23.
How did Watson and Crick’s work build upon the work of other scientists? (The number of strands was gleaned from the work on Wilkins and
Franklin; the complementary nature of DNA from Chargaff’s molecular work)
Section 4.8 – DNA – Creating Its Own Future
24.
Summarize the steps of DNA replication, based on the pictures on page 158
Section 4.9 – How Enzymes Copy DNA
25.
Why is the picture on page 158 an oversimplification of the process of DNA replication? (DNA doesn’t copy itself – it needs proteins/enzymes to do it)
26.
Modify your summary from page 158, adding in the proteins profiled at the top of 159.
27.
Explain why the “nicknames” given to each protein are appropriate.
Section 4.10 – Genomes
28.
Why, if there are so many different types of humans, can there be only one “human genome”? (There are many differences within their genes, but there is only one order of genes common to all)
29.
What are some benefits of decoding an organism’s genome?
30.
*Besides making multiple copies of a test subject’s DNA, what are some other applications of PCR?
31.
*What are “restriction enzymes”? (Enzymes from bacteria that cut DNA double strands at particular, short sequences of nucleotides)
32.
*Why is the analogy of DNA to a “fingerprint” an appropriate one?
33.
*What is the significance of “chain stopper” forms of ATP, GTP, CTP, and TTP used in gene sequencing techniques? (Since new nucleotides cannot be added to them, copying of the chain ceases here. This produces newly-made single strands whose lengths depend on how many nucleotides got into the chain before lengthening stopped. This allows researchers to determine the positions of each of the A’s, G’s, C’s, and T’s within a sequence of DNA by determining the lengths of each of the strands produced, and reading them in order)
Section 2.7 – Life Creates with Mistakes

34.
How might an “error” actually lead to a benefit?
35.
Explain the statement – “Nature will try anything once.”
36.
How is the mutation rate within living things kept to a minimum? (There is machinery within cells for monitoring their DNA, finding errors, and correcting them)
37.
What are mutations generally caused by? (1. Mistakes made by DNA duplicating machinery when the cells divide; 2. Radiation (X-rays, UV, cosmic radiation); 3. Toxic chemicals interacting with DNA)
Section 4.11 – DNA Repair
38.
What kinds of repair enzymes are involved in DNA repair? (“erasers” that find poorly-matching, damaged nucleotides and snip them out;
“builders” that follow along to fill in the gaps; “stitchers” that repair the backbone of the DNA)
Section 4.15 – DNA Packaging
39.
What are various ways DNA has “found” to package itself? (pollen, nuts, seeds, spores, sperm, egg)
40.
What are some ways that organisms have “found” to make sure the package is delivered? (Plants attract pollinators, etc.)