Integrated STEM Activity #1: DNA

It’s a lot easier to think of science activities, or technology activities, or engineering activities, or math activities, than it is to combine them into one. Here’s your chance to get your little scientists, technologists (?), engineers, and mathematicians involved in a big, fat, STEM activity.

There are a lot of different ways you can take this activity, depending on age and interest. I’ll share a few ideas, but feel free to customize! The priority, for me, is to get kids interested in the content. The goal is the “aha” moment or the “lemme just look up this one more thing” moment.

Plus, DNA is the coolest. Who wouldn’t be fascinated by it?

Integrated STEM Activity #1: DNA

The general idea of the activity is to have kids learn about DNA and build a model of DNA. You may want to identify and prepare building materials available ahead of time, or incorporate that into the activity. The discussion questions below can guide you through the activity. It might be helpful to choose the discussion questions that are most suitable and prepare some answers or resources before beginning the activity. This can help keep the activity moving forward, without preventing your kid from steering it in their own direction.

Preschool and Elementary:

Science: What is a trait? What traits do you have in common with your family members? Where do traits come from? What is DNA? What does DNA look like? What is a double helix?

Technology: How can we learn about DNA? How can we find pictures of DNA? How do we know whether we are looking at a reliable source? 

Engineering: What materials can we find to build a model of DNA? How can we hold our model together? What works about our model? What can we improve about our model?

Math: How much building material do we have? Is it enough? How many “rungs” of DNA can we make? How much material is left over?

Middle School:

Science: What is a trait? What traits have you inherited? What is DNA? What is a double helix? What is a gene? How can we predict the inheritance of genes and traits? What is a Punnett Square and why are they awesome?

Technology: How can we learn about DNA? How do we know whether we are looking at a reliable source? How were scientists able to discover DNA?

Engineering: What materials can we find to build a model of DNA? How does our model accurately represent DNA? In what ways is our model inaccurate or misleading? How can we improve our model?

Math: How much building material do we have? How much material is left over? What is the scale of our model? 

High School:

Science: What is a trait? What traits have you inherited? What is DNA? What is a double helix? What is a gene? How can we predict the inheritance of genes and traits? What is a Punnett Square and why are they awesome? How do theoretical statistical models help make predictions?

Technology: How can we learn about DNA? How do we know whether we are looking at a reliable source? How were scientists able to discover DNA? What current research is being done on DNA and what technology are scientists using to study it?

Engineering: How can we best plan our DNA model? How does our model accurately represent DNA? In what ways is our model inaccurate or misleading? How can we improve our model? What age group would best learn from our model? How could we adapt our model for other age groups?

Math: How much building material do we have? How much material is left over? What is the scale of our model? What would it cost to build a better model? What would it cost to scale up the model for a museum exhibit?

Twizzlers make a great simplified sugar-phosphate backbone.