Students in Cortney Shaller’s AP biology, dual credit biology and forensics classes celebrated DNA Day April 25 with DNA shaped cookies and watching the movie “Gattaca.”

DNA Day commemorates the publicized DNA molecule, discovered by James Watson and Francis Crick in 1953. Shaller said she celebrates the day with her classes because of its importance to not only biology, but to life itself.

“Without DNA there would be no world,” Shaller said. “It is the life code and the blueprint for all life.”

In 2003 the Human Genome Project was complete. The goal was for scientists to discover the full sequence of the nucleotide base pairs.

“After the project was finished, we knew all of the letters that made up DNA,” Shaller said. “We then knew all of our genes.”

Senior Briana Lacy said participating in DNA Day helped her to understand the structure and function of DNA.

“DNA is a double helix structure,” Lacy said. “I never knew that genes only make up 2 to 3 percent of our genome as humans.”

AP biology student, senior Sarah Bell, said without DNA, human life would be non-existent.

“Without DNA, we are essentially nothing,” Bell said. “Maybe we could be a table students do their work on every day. That’s just something to think about.”