1. Explain the structure of DNA – use the terms nucleotides, antiparallel strands, and complimentary base pairing.

DNA is a double helix structure, composed of backbones of sugars and phosphates. on one side, the sugars and phosphates are in a repeating pattern, and on the other backbone, they are anti-parallel reciprocating the opposite way. between the to backbones, there are nucleotides that make a ladder-like form, and the nucleotides pair up using complimentary base pairing here A-T, and C-G. A – adenine. T – thymine. C – cytosine. G – 

1. How does this activity help model the structure of DNA? What changes could we make to improve the accuracy of this model? Be detailed and constructive.

This activity is very helpful in showing the twisted helix shape of the DNA strands, and putting the nucleotides on ourselves onto the strands was cool. I think that if there were beads to show the sugars and the phosphates would be better because here on our strand we only see the phosphates, and we can’t truly see the anti parallel patterns of the backbones.  for example we could use red beads as the sugars so they contrast with the black phosphate beads. it would more accurately show the antiparallel structure. 

the dna strand fully coiled into a double helix shape