1. Can You See
Strawberries’
DNA?

2. Let’s Explore! What does DNA look like? Fruit Snacks = Base Pairs
Make a model!
Fruit Snacks = Base Pairs
Guanine – Cytosine
Adenine – Thymine
Rules =
G/C always go together
A/T always go together
Pick any colors to represent them
Stay consistent if you pick yellow/red for GC, stay with it.
Toothpicks = Rungs on the Ladder. Carefully poke the toothpicks through your base pairs.
Twizzlers = Sugar phosphate backbone. Attach to ladder rungs.

3. Now! Back to the Question!
Can you see Strawberry DNA?
Let’s try!
First – We’ll watch a video of some cool scientists who will show us a method for extracting DNA from a strawberry.

4. Do you think you can do it?
I know you can!
Here’s what you need!
1 ziploc bag
½ cup of water
strawberries frozen or very ripe fresh
2 teaspoons of dish detergent
1 teaspoon of salt
2 plastic cups
coffee filter
ice cold rubbing alcohol (90%)
stirring apparatus (popsicle stick or Qtip)

5. Team Up!
Get with a partner.
Send a partner to collect your materials.

6. First
Add 2-3 strawberries to your bag.
Zip and mush completely.

7. Second Combine: ½ cup water 2 teaspoons dish soap ½ teaspoon salt
stir well

8. Third Add: Soap solution to strawberry bag.
Mix, but not enough to make
a lot of bubbles.

9. Fourth
Filter:
Pour the strawberry and soap solution into the cup THROUGH the coffee filter. Be careful!

10. Fifth
Pour:
Pour an equal amount of the very cold alcohol into the cup of strawberry/soap solution. (This is really DNA in solution).

11. Sixth Observe! Strawberry DNA will appear! You did it! You did it!
Use the Q-Tip to place it under the microscope if you like. Or you can spread it on the black paper and look at it through the lense. What do you see?