How to Build a DNA Model Out of Pipe Cleaners, Beads & Pasta
DNA is the basic make up of almost every living creature. It is what carries the hereditary traits of your mother and father, as well as their ancestors, to create your unique traits. DNA is made up of four chemicals called adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine in unique sequences. If you had to describe the basic look of a sequence of DNA, you could describe it as two long strands connected by shorter strands, almost like a ladder that is twisted. If you want to create your own model of DNA, you can use pipe cleaners, pasta and beads.
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Things You'll Need
- Pipe cleaners
- Two types of tubular pasta
- Plastic beads in four different colors
- Fishing wire
- Scissors
Instructions
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1
Choose two long pipe cleaners for the sides of the strand. You want ones that are 24 inches long. If you cannot find these, you can use four 12-inch ones. Make two longer pipe cleaners by twisting the ends of two of the shorter pipe cleaners together.
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2
Thread 17 pieces of pasta on each long pipe cleaner strand. Use two different types of tubular pasta, such as pinwheel, ziti or penne, and alternate them. For example, use pinwheel pasta for the sugar component and ziti pasta for the phosphate component of DNA. There should be 9 sugar components and 8 phosphate components per pipe cleaner. Start with one sugar component, and then place a phosphate component. Continue to alternate the placement until the 17 pieces of pasta are all on the pipe cleaner. Wrap the ends of the pipe cleaner over the last piece of pasta on each strand to hold the pasta in place.
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3
Use four different-color 1/2-inch plastic beads to represent the four basic chemicals of DNA. You will need four beads of each color. For example, use red for adenine, blue for guanine, green for cytosine and yellow for thymine. Feed the beads onto 1 1/2-inch lengths of fishing line in pairs. Remember that adenine and thymine always pair together and cytosine and guanine always pair together. You will want eight separate beaded strands when you are done threading, each strand will have two beads each. These will be the rungs of your ladder.
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4
Tie the rungs from Step 3 to the strands from Step 2. Space the rungs evenly. You can put them in any order you want since the sequences of DNA are unique. Use scissors to trim the loose ends of the fishing wire.
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5
Twist the pipe cleaners slightly to make the ladder appear twisted.
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References
- Photo Credit dna image by Allyson Ricketts from Fotolia.com
