DNA double helix

We finished painting the base pairs on our giant DNA model today and it is now suspended in the classroom!

Today we extracted the DNA from strawberries,kiwi,blueberries and blackberries.


















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Practise makes perfect

Here are middle school pupils practicing their presentations for our Swiss visit next week.










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An exciting afternoon in middle school!

This afternoon we started off with some group work and research to come up with some definitions of key genetics words:

We then listened to and discussed this song called "Cells" by "There might be Giants".

This resulted in a quick game of chinese whispers to illustrate how information can be lost when cells reproduce themselves and how their message can be gradually reduced and changed.

We then created a giant DNA double helix molecule out of a football training ladder:

And painted the rungs to represent pairs of the 4 different bases on the DNA strand:

Pupils then had a go at building their own DNA strand using different technology materials - it was great fun!

Being a gene...

In order to try to understand some of the different parts of a cell and basics of genetics, middle school became a cell...

Each child was an individual gene. They each took some scrabble letters to represent the bases on their gene. Then they linked up in chains of genes to form chromosomes. We then went into the GP room which became our cell, with the GP room walls being the cell membrane. A circle of stools in the middle of the 'cell' became the nucleus and our model was complete when all our chains of 'chromosomes' curled up and squashed inside the nucleus.

Research

Pupils were researching the topic of genetics today, looking for information about chromosomes, DNA, genes, personality traits and more.

We used scrabble letters to explore the idea of DNA containing our entire genetic code or blueprint despite there only being 4 different bases. Pupils tried to make as many different combinations as possible...

Poetry!

P7, S1 & S2 have nearly all completed their identity poems - they are looking great!




This morning we were working on creating a class poem describing ourselves as how we used to be, how we are now and what we hope to be. We were using a thesaurus to widen our vocabulary.

Arty poems!

Pupils wrote identity poems with Dr Rankin earlier this week, they then used 'TypeDrawing' and 'Wordfoto' to create some super display work.

Here is Declan's poem, typed using the app TypeDrawing:

This is Alex's portrait made up of key words from his poem. It was created using the app Wordfoto:

Here are some of the finished poetry display pieces:

Abstract art

Pupils in middle school created some pieces of abstract art as well as graffiti style signatures to help make the classroom feel like home!

Welcome!

Welcome to our 1st ever Middle School Blog!

P7, S1 & S2 have already made a great start to the year and we are all really looking forward to what lies ahead.