Daily Archives: January 5, 2018

Edible DNA Model

Posted by rubym2017 in Science 9 and tagged with

What is DNA & What is it’s Function?

DNA is a molecule that is stored inside the nucleus in your cells. Inside the nucleus, there are 46 chromosomes (23 pairs) and inside each chromosome, lives your genes and DNA. Your genes are what make you yourself. If you have red hair and green eyes, that is all thanks to your genes. If you were to look at a DNA strand, it would be a long spiralled ladder. A real human strand would stretch up to the length of 6 feet! DNA is a strand of molecules made up of nucleotides. There are four types of nucleotides, A,T,C,G (Adenine, Thymine, Cytosine, Guanine). DNA’s function is to code sequences into messages to make sure that all the organs in your body are running properly. DNA changes into RNA which is a copy of only half the original sequence. Then, the RNA is transformed into proteins which help our bodies function.

For this project, we created edible DNA models using licorice, mini marshmallows and toothpicks. We had to compose a strand of DNA that followed a simple DNA sequence using RNA (TAC GTA TGA AAC) and it’s opposing nucleotide (A-T C-G). The different coloured marshmallows were used for the different nucleotides ( A: Yellow T: Orange G: Green C: Pink).

 

     

Currents In The Kitchen Lab

Posted by rubym2017 in Science 9 and tagged with

Process

We started off our “Currents In The Kitchen Lab” experiment by taking two wires and connecting them to a Voltmeter. We also connected the wires to two different types of metal. In this lab, we used copper and zinc for our two metals. Then, we inserted the metal pieces into the fruits and vegetables that we provided for the experiment to see the amount of electric voltage that they gave off.

The Fruit/Vegetables that we experimented with were Lemons, Limes, Potatoes and Oranges.

We also used a small lightbulb to test which food product gave off the most electricity. The testing with the lightbulb turn out to be unsuccessful because none of the products carried enough electricity to light the bulb. We were still able to pick our winner, using the information we collected from the Voltmeter.

To our surprise, the potato possessed the most electric charge!

Observations

One of the main question that we had as a group was “Can we form a greater charge by using multiple food products at the same thing?” We split our potato into two pieces and connected the pieces separately onto the Voltmeter but we ended up having the same charge as before. We also tried connecting all of our products my creating a circuit with multiple wires and connecting it to the Voltmeter, but it was not a greater charge then having the products connected on their own. Our observation was that we couldn’t create a greater voltage by adding more of the independent variable.

Our second observation was that in my hypothesis, I stated that I believed that the lemon would have a greater charge due to the citric juices on the inside. Even though the potato had the highest charge, it was true that the acid in the lemons and limes did help create the voltage. The juice helped make a naturel path for the electrons to flow through.

Our last observation was we got the best accuracy by using the lowest setting in the Voltmeter. We used 3V setting so we could most accurately collect the information we needed.

Information

  1. Potato: Had a charge of 0.2V on the setting of 3V
  2. Lemon: Had a charge of 0.155V on the setting of 3V
  3. Lime: Had a charge of 0.15V on the setting of 3V
  4. Several pieces of potato: Had the charge of 0.1V on the setting of 3V

In the future, we’d love to again try to light a lightbulb using fruit. Since our first try turned out to be unsuccessful, we wonder in it is truly possible. This was an experience to remember and we as a group loved working together and working to not only experiment with electricity in fruit but also figure out how to light a lightbulb with our independent variables.