Unit 3:

Circadian Rhythms
Tick Tock: What sets our internal clock?
Circadian Rhythms, Genetics, Health
Context and Relevance:
People need an average of 7-9 hours a night. That means that a
person that sleeps 8 hours a day and lives until they are 75 years old, they would spend 25
years of their life asleep! In this unit we will explore how we set our internal clocks and the
effects of environment on our circadian rhythms.

Essential Question:
What keeps our internal clocks on-time?
How does our environment set our internal clocks?

Project tasks:
Determine your chronotype (lark vs night owl)
Protein synthesis and folding of the PER2 gene
Compare jobs that disrupt our internal clocks
Determining the sleep disorder via case study

Project skills:
Protein folding
Reading actograms

Knowledge:
Protein synthesis
Circadian rhythms & terminology
Epigenetics
Zeitgebers

Project Product​:
Mild Medium Spicy

Slideshow or collage Infographic/drawing/ Produce a short film

painting etc.

Write a 2-3 blog posts, short Write a children's story/ Write a scientific paper
story anthologies, or article for comic book
the quill.

Skit/written play/short song Interactive hallway exhibit 3D model

Topics:
Sleep disorders Sleep changes with age Sleep and mood disorders
Teenage sleep Time that school should start Zeitgebers (light, exercise)
Epigenetics Dreams Model of the PER2 protein
Comparative across mammals (chronotypes, Zeitgebers)