the lac operon lesson

This is an in-class activity that pairs a 3D printed lac operon model with guided-inquiry question set.

At the end of this activity, students should be able to:

1. Diagram a bacterial operon including the promoter, -10/-35 sites, and transcriptional and translational start/stop sites.
2. Describe how the lac operon is regulated.
3. Explain how lac operon regulation enables a bacterium to effectively utilize two different sugars as growth substrates under catabolite repression control.