BLAST computer lab
Mon, Sep 14, 2026 · Week 4 · Genetics of Disease (Medical Interventions)
Today's goal: Document a nucleotide BLAST workflow and explain what the resulting sequence comparison can and cannot support.
Use this blank frame to organize your own recorded results. It is not a completed result or a separate assignment.
Writing frame, not a completed result:
Input: [official trace position range]. Settings: [actual database and program].
Screenshot: [attach your own labeled hit table].
Comparison: [reference hit] is a possible match to [the aligned region], based on [actual identity and coverage]; [specific uncertainty] remains.
Workflow check: [tutorial step, settings and actual outcome].
If no result exists, record the attempted step and the help needed. Do not fill the blanks with invented values.
This blank frame helps organize your own recorded results for: Lab report: annotated hit-table screenshot, one-sentence qualified comparison, and actual tutorial workflow-check result.
- Open Activity 1.1.3, Outbreak Investigation Day 2 and Automated DNA Sequence Data from the PLTW hub. Read the Day 2 context. Use the parent PDF's physical pages 8–9 for Part II steps 6–8 and its color/ambiguity key.
- Read the assigned trace in numbered order, not by page position. Lane 1 is on the right; lane 2 is on the left. Keep a continuous readable segment and mark uncertainty using the parent key. Save the input and its position range.
- Follow the separate Part III tutorial on physical pages 16–30. Use its page 18 input for the workflow check. Record the actual database and program settings and what happened; do not claim a prescribed result.
- Use Part IV steps 10–12 on physical pages 31–32 for the trace-derived comparison. A query is the sequence you submit; the selected database is the reference collection it searches. Save the chosen settings with the result.
- Save a hit-table screenshot. Label the compared hit, percent identity, query coverage and E-value where shown. Write one qualified comparison sentence and record the tutorial workflow-check outcome, including failure or uncertainty.
- Discuss the result and its limits with a partner. Submit official records and the separate one-PDF lab report to their own assignments. Stop at the day's assigned portion; bring the saved result or partial record to Tuesday.
Keep your actual input, settings and results. If work is unresolved, record the attempted step and ask for help. Do not invent or substitute results.
Also due today: Keep two assignments separate. Submit the assigned official activity records to PLTW Work (8520302449). Submit the lab report as one PDF to Lab report (8520302481); if the paper report was collected in class, do not upload it again.
Keep two assignments separate. Submit the assigned official activity records to PLTW Work (8520302449). Submit the lab report as one PDF to Lab report (8520302481); if the paper report was collected in class, do not upload it again.
PLTW Work: assigned official activity recordsLab report: one PDFClaim ceiling: A sequence match and tutorial check cannot prove identity or disease causation.
One exam-style question that uses exactly what you practiced today. Try it before you reveal the answer, then read why each choice is right or wrong.
Tap an answer to see the full explanation. Nothing is recorded or graded.
It builds this reusable test skill: Separating a workflow check from case evidence.
- Name the concept or data pattern being tested.
- Cross out choices that violate that rule or the evidence.
- Justify the best remaining choice before checking the answer.