Purpose
Most of you are used to finding things out by reading about them. You go to a web site or a text book and see what they have to say. Then you believe or don't believe what you've read, depending on a lot of things -- maybe the reputation of the author, how well the information comports with things you already believe, and so forth.

The purpose of this investigation is to help break you of that habit and substitute for it the practice of finding things out for yourself. In going through What is a Gene, you will ask simple questions about genes and get answers through your own experiments.

Resources
I suggest that you open the two resources below at the same time and work through them in parallel:

• What is a Gene? (the investigation)
  The investigation uses an integrated date/programming environment called CyanoBIKE (within the BioBIKE suite) to give you ready access to the genes of a bacterium. It is divided into four parts (we'll be going through only the first two):
   
  1. Genes and gene coordinates
  2. What is the beginning of a gene?
  3. What determines the beginning of a protein-encoding gene?
  4. What is the end of a gene?
  
  
• Companion to What is a Gene
  This presentation helps you get past some of the pitfalls presented by BioBIKE.

To turn in
As you go through Parts I and II of What is a Gene, every time you address a substantial question:

1. Briefly describe the question you addressed and its significance
2. Describe how you addressed the question, in sufficient detail that someone could repeat your efforts
3. Present the result you got and/or the observation you made. Make sure you are presenting a result/observation and not a conclusion.
4. Interpret the result/observation in light of the question you asked