DNA Graphic Organizer

Creating Graphic Organizers through programs like Inspiration are a great tools to display information for a specific lesson or to assess students' understanding of the subject material in an in class project or homework assignment. Visual aids and graphic organizers are tools that help students learn and remember information because they help students organize information in a meaningful way. Teachers can ask students to replicate a diagram on a test or quiz or create blanks for them to fill in.

When I was creating my own Graphic organizer, the hardest part was organizing the information on DNA that I needed to be able to create it. However, once I organized the DNA ladder into 3 different sections, it was much easier for me to remember that DNA is made of a sugar-phosphate backbone and base-pairs in a double helical shape. I even was able to use this graphic organizer for lesson plan that I wrote the following week on DNA.

If I were to create another graphic organizer, I would definitely utilize the Inspiration program if my school had purchased the software. I love that you can organize the information in multiple ways from bubble trees to outlines. Being able to change between data formats allows the teacher to use the information in multiple ways. Furthermore, I would create more "notes" that students could access if they needed more information about a particular part of the diagram. No matter how you choose to create a graphic organizer, I enjoy that you can make a diagram simple or complex depending on the needs of the students in your classroom.