Publisher

Activity

Viral DNA Integration

Curated and Reviewed by Lesson Planet

This Viral DNA Integration activity also includes:

How do reverse transcriptase inhibitors work? Young virologists examine the function of azidothymidine, a drug doctors use to treat HIV patients, during a hands-on modeling activity. Groups create a strand of DNA from an HIV RNA strand and incorporate the inhibitor into the process to create an explanation of why it slows the progression of the disease.

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Concepts

hiv/aids, viruses, public health, dna, rna, transcription, the nucleus, cells, nucleic acids, dna sequence

Additional Tags

science

Instructional Ideas

Get things started with an animation of the HIV life cycle
When pupils finish, show an animation of how AZT blocks reverse transcriptase and reduces the number of viral particles in a patient's body

Classroom Considerations

Print and laminate the nucleotides and attach Velcro to the tabs on the cards to help the class build their DNA sequences
Student should be in groups of two or three

Pros

Resource uses real HIV sequences for the activity
The learner-facing directions for the activity are written clearly and are easy to follow

Cons

None

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