Pivot Interactives is thrilled to announce the release of two new animated Pivots that will change the way you teach molecular genetics in your biology courses.
1. From Gene to Protein, where students actively transcribe genes to mRNA and then translate mRNA to proteins.
2. Mutations, where students change DNA sequences, classify mutations, and connect DNA changes.
Use these activities with your students now! Find them in the activity library under Biology - Gene Expression or start a 30-day free trial.
Watch the video to get a preview of From Gene to Protein:
• Unparalleled Interactivity:
No passive watching here!
•In transcription students act as RNA polymerase to match the correct base pairs and build an mRNA transcript from promoter to terminator regions.
•In translation students find the start codon with the ribosome, before using the codon chart to correctly translate the mRNA message into an amino acid polypeptide.
• Differentiated Instruction:
Built in scaffolds guide students to independence & mastery. Help buttons are always a click away. Each student can move at their own pace.
• Advanced Modes:
Advanced levels allow for simple steps to take a deep dive tough topics:
•Pre-transcriptional regulation: Students match activators to enhancer regions and transcription factors to the promoter to permit transcription to begin.
•Post-transcriptional processing: Students use proteins to add a 5’ cap and a 3’ tail to the pre-mRNA prior to splicing.
•Alternative splicing: Students use a splicesome to cut out introns and exons to make a mature mRNA transcript. Do it multiple times to view the variety of transcripts that could come from a single gene.
Standards Aligned:
Help your students effectively reach the learning goals for your course.
• NGSS - HS-LS1-1, HS-LS3-1
• AP® - Unit 6 - Topics 6.1, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5 and 6.6 (Almost all of Unit 6!)
• IB - Topics 2.7, 3.2, 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3
Randomized and Auto-graded:
Each student receives their own sequences to work with. No cheating here! You can not confidently incorporate collaboration where students have to share skills and processes and not “right answers.”
Embedded in the Pivot Interactives platform allows for auto-grading after students meet different completion thresholds.
Teacher Customization:
Make it your own! Assign specific numbers of genes, add a custom sequence, incorporate the advanced levels, and assign the use of scaffolds like the codon table.
As always, you have all of the tools within the powerful activity editor to write additional content, curriculum, or scaffolds around the interactive. Build additional questions or use Co-Labs to increase collaboration. There are lots of ways to implement this. We are excited to see what you come up with!
Find them here (From Gene to Protein, Mutations) or start a 30-day Free Trial!
During your Free Trial you will have full access.
• All of the engaging phenomena to use with your students including this Pivot
• The ability to create, modify, and collaborate with other teachers to build activities
• Assign activities to your students and start teaching with active engagement, embedded science & engineering practices, continuous feedback, unrestricted exploration of phenomena and adaptability.
