Debra Setzer, Sweeny High School/Sweeny ISD, Honors Biology, 9th Grade, 7 days, 1st Week in
May
E3 Final Report
Basically two topics were covered in my classroom project. As an extension of the section on
the cell cycle, students learned about cancer and the effects of radiation on cells. To tie in to my
genetics unit, students did a colony transformation as a representation for using glowing genes to
track cells or cell death following radiation exposure. I also taught a mini-unit on the different
engineering disciplines.
For the introduction to engineering I created a power point on what is engineering. The power
point covered several fields of engineering and I used it as a tie in to the field of Nuclear
Engineering and Radiologic Health Engineering. Part of the pre-test asked engineering questions
and the purpose of the power point was to give the students a better understand of what an
engineer does and how it helps us.
Day 1 – Engineering power point & Presentation on my E3 Summer Experience.
Day 2 – Video from Teachers Domain “Everyday Radiation”. After 3 minute video presentation
hand out of Dose Ranges of ionizing radiation. Average Dose Worksheet. Demonstration on
which items are radioactive – Geiger Counter and household items. Discussion on why it is
important to know what amounts of radiation you are exposed to.
Day 3 - Cell Cycle and the effects of radiation on the cell cycle – power point. Cancer
Discussion. Short Cancer video clip.
Day 4 – Radiation power point and discussion of completed student worksheets. Independent
student research on “Types of Medical Diagnostic Procedures that involve Radiation”
Day 5 – Discussion on using animals to understand the effects of radiation on cells and or
tissues. Why use animals instead of humans? Introduction to Colony Transformation lab.
Debra Setzer, Sweeny High School/Sweeny ISD, Honors Biology, 9th Grade, 7 days, 1st Week in
May
Discussion question examples:
What can we use DNA for? How can DNA be put into bacteria? Why would we want to put
DNA into bacteria? How can we tell DNA is in the bacteria once we put it there?
What is a plasmid? What is ampicillin?
Day 6 – Bacterial transformation lab work.
1. Pipette the DNA solution from your numbered DNA tube into your E. coli bacteria
tube and label the tube 1 or 2. 2. Put tubes on ice for 5 minutes. 3. In the meantime, each group
should get one LB agar plate and one LB agar + ampicillin plate. Write initials and section
number on plates. You will be plating bacteria with DNA on an LB agar plate and on an LB agar
+ampicillin plate. Mark these two plates with the DNA number on your tube. 4. Put tubes
directly from ice into 42°C water bath for 50 seconds. 5. Put DNA tubes directly from water bath
onto ice for 2 minutes. 6. With a large transfer pipette, add 0.25 ml LB broth into your DNA
tube (bring solution to the first mark on the pipette.) Incubate at room temperature for 10
minutes.
7. With the small transfer pipette, pipette 0.15 ml (about half) from your DNA tube onto your LB
agar plate and 0.15 ml onto your LB agar + ampicillin plate. 8. Spread the solutions on the plates
using a sterile Q-tip. Be careful not to stab the agar. 9. Put your plates in a 37°C incubator for 24
hours.
Day 7 – Complete Bacterial transformation lab work and look at results under UV light. Fill in
data tables and answer conclusion questions. Take Post Test.
I was partially pleased with how well the project went. Due to time constraints because of the
curriculum that I have to follow, I did not get to spend as much time on the lessons as I had
Debra Setzer, Sweeny High School/Sweeny ISD, Honors Biology, 9th Grade, 7 days, 1st Week in
May
originally planned. There are so many different topics that could be tied in to this lesson. As far
as what my students learned I was very pleased. They performed the lab well and we stayed on
schedule. I did not have time to do the lab with the C. Elegans and have the worms sent to Dr.
Ford to be irradiated which is something I really wanted to do.
I received mixed emotions from my students. The first lesson on engineering and my summer
experience interested some of the students but I could tell others thought it was boring. The
radiation lesson was fun to them because they liked playing with the Geiger Counter. They all
really liked the bacterial transformation lab although some groups seemed to be more confused
than others. The radiation lesson and presentation did not work too well. The information and
presentation was a little too “deep” for my freshmen especially when talking about REM’s and
Sieverts.
The improvements I would make would be to adjust my lesson and power point on radiation to a
level that my freshmen can understand.
When I teach this lesson next time I will spread out the lesson into different parts and make them
fit in my curriculum a little better (and maybe allow me to spend more time on it). I definitely
want to find time to include the C. elegans experiment next year.