Lesson: Nucleic Acids Biology • First Year of Secondary School

In this lesson, we will learn how to describe the structure of nucleotides and nucleic acids and outline their importance in living organisms.

Lesson Plan

Students will be able to

describe the structure of a nucleotide as being a phosphate group, pentose sugar (either ribose or deoxyribose), and a nitrogen containing base,
recall that the nitrogenous bases are adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine in DNA, or uracil in RNA, and the base pairings that occur,
state that a nucleic acid is formed from many nucleotides, joined by condensation reactions,
compare and contrast the structures of DNA and RNA,
explain the importance of DNA in storing genetic material and safely transferring genetic information between organisms.