This simple activity asks students to cut out shapes of nucleotides, each having a phosphate, a base, and a deoxyribose sugar.  

Students color each nucleotide and paste them in an anti-parallel orientation.   Worksheet has space for pasting the completed model and a few questions regarding the base-pair rule, and the composition of a nucleotide.

I have used this worksheet as an alternative to the DNA coloring worksheet in introductory biology.   This one does require coloring but does not go into detail regarding messenger RNA and transcription.

Grade Level:  7-9
Time Required:  30-45 minutes

HS-LS3-1 Ask questions to clarify relationships about the role of DNA and chromosomes in coding the instructions for characteristic traits passed from parents to offspring.