Emily and John wandered into the camp kitchen.  They found some bread, peanut butter and jelly and made themselves sandwiches.  

Emily sat down at one of the tables and started eating.  John joined her after moment. Then, to Emily’s surprise, Julie came in.  

“What are you doing here?”  Emily asked, eyeing Julie suspiciously.  She was supposed to be a hologram, and Emily had not expected to see her again now that Catie, the Seekers Stone they had discovered in the lake, had revealed herself and her secret about the camp.

Before her eyes, Julie transformed into Catie, the hologram of the girl they had met the first day.

“Is this better?” Catie asked.

Emily nodded.  “But what are you doing here?” she asked.

“I thought you and John might like to learn more about our adventure with DNA.  Would you like to learn more?” Catie asked.

“Sure!” John said, around a mouth full of peanut butter.

“Okay,” Catie said, “First let’s talk about what DNA actually is.  DNA is a molecule, which means it is a chemical built from atoms joined together by chemical bonds.  Everything we see or touch in everyday life is a chemical, and most of those things are made of molecules.  Some things, like pure gold or pure silver, are only made of one type of atom, and are not bound together by chemical bonds in the same way molecules are.  But unless something is a pure substance made of only one element, or type of atoms, it is made of molecules.”

A picture suddenly appeared in front of them, hanging in the air.

“This is what a DNA molecule looks like,” Catie said, “Each of the little colored balls is a different type of atom, and the sticks holding them together represent their chemical bonds.”

“The name DNA is actually an acronym, which means it is an abbreviation made from the  first letters of other words,” Catie continued, “The actual name is deoxyribonucleic acid!”

“What did you just say?” Emily asked.  John looked puzzled too.

“Well,” Catie   replied, “if you would like to hear it again, here is what it sounds like:”

Press Play to hear DNA pronounced:

After they had heard it a few times and practiced saying it, it didn’t seem so bad to Emily after all.  Actually, it was kind of fun to say such a big and smart-sounding word!

Seeing that they had the word down pat, Catie started again.  A three-dimensional model appeared, hovering over the table. It rotated around so they could see what it looked like from all sides.

“Because of the two twisting strands that  form the outsides of the ladder, people call it a double helix,” Catie said.

“The rungs of the ladder are made up of pairs of molecules.   The molecules are abbreviated A, T, C and G. A always matches with T, and C always matches with G.  You can see them in the first picture. That way, when the rungs are cut apart by the enzyme that attacked us,  the other enzymes can rebuild exact copies of the DNA. They just match A’s with T’s and C’s with G’s. Then we have two whole strands of DNA!”

Another holographic image appeared above the table.  

“This video shows how DNA wraps up to form the chromosomes we saw.  Then it shows what we saw earlier when the enzymes copied the cell’s DNA,”  Catie said.

“There is a lot more to to learn  about DNA,” Catie said, “If you want to learn more, I  found most of my information and my pictures on Wikipedia.  Get your parents’ permission before you visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA, and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKubyIRiN84.”

“Are you almost done eating those sandwiches?” she asked.

Emily and John both nodded enthusiastically.  They felt ready for another adventure!

 

Would you like to see more content like this?  Subscribe to our email list and you’ll automatically get all of our free stuff as we create it.  We’ll never ask you for money or bother you to buy anything.  You’ll just get free stuff.  We promise!