Designing DNA

What you’ll need:

• Our DNA fact sheet to read from (because we know parents don’t actually know everything!)
• Paper
• Scissors
• Colouring pens or pencils
• String/ribbon
• Beads, feathers, other decorations (optional, but fun)

Duration:

• 10 minutes to cover the fact sheet
• 5 minutes to make the DNA strands
• 20 minutes to string them together into your favourite animal

1.

Cut up some paper, and write a DNA letter on each piece – you’ll need some As, some Ts, some Cs and some Gs.

Top tip: Remember, the best friend letters don’t like to be separated, so if you make a T, A will always be hanging out below, and vice versa. It’s the same for G and C. Click here for our printable template which will give you an idea of how the letters should look.

3.

Choose an animal you would like to create a sequence for, from the sequences below.

Chimpanzee  

GTA  TTT  GTG  GTA  AAC  CCA  GTG

Human  

TCT  GAG  TTC  TTA  CTT  CGA  AGG 

Carnivorous plant  

GTA  GCC  ACA  GAC  TCA  GTC  ATC 

4.

Lay out your sequence, with letters grouped in sets of three – these are the codons. Leave a space between the groups. The ‘best friend’ letters on the bottom are the base code. Cut a piece of ribbon or string to the length you will need in order to stick on your sequence.  

5.

Stick your letters in groups of three onto your string. If you want, you can add beads, feathers or extra ribbon in between the codons (that bit’s just for fun – you won’t find those in real DNA!) All that’s left is to find somewhere to hang your creation!

Your end result will look something like this: