Fold Commons

Class set · for staff

Protein Club in a box

Six weekly sessions for an after-school club, ages 9 and up. Mostly hands and paper. Every session works from one shared screen or from a printout. Print one staff card per session.

How the box works

Protein Club · session 1 of 6 · staff card

A chain by hand

Goal: A protein is a chain. A chain of beads that are all alike lands in a new shape every time.

Print: The Fold Night kit, stop 1 (one copy for the leader). One field note per child. String and 20 beads, buttons or paper clips per pair.

Screen: One shared screen for BeadFold, or none.

  1. Thread 20 beads on a string. Fold it, lay it down, then fold it again. Compare the two shapes.
  2. On the one screen, play BeadFold together: the room calls each next square. The aim: as many oily beads touching as you can.
  3. Each child draws their string on a field note: what I saw in one column, what I think in the other.

If a child leaves early, nothing is lost. No accounts, no streaks.

Closing question: Why might a chain made of different beads land in the same shape more often?

Uses: Fold Night kit (foldcommons.org/route-sheet/night) · BeadFold (foldcommons.org/tools/proteinquest/beads) · FirstLook field note (foldcommons.org/tools/pencilorink/firstlook)

These sessions are designs; no study shows what they teach.

Protein Club · session 2 of 6 · staff card

Ink and pencil

Goal: AlphaFold says how sure it is about each part of a chain. We draw sure parts in ink and unsure parts in pencil.

Print: One field note and one Bestiary cover per child. A pencil and a dark pen each.

Screen: One shared screen for FirstLook, or none (read the protein name and strip from a printed field note).

  1. Deal one protein for the whole room on FirstLook. Turn it in 3D together.
  2. Everyone draws it: ink where the strip is ink, pencil where it is pencil. Then gives it a name.
  3. Fill in the two columns and file the sheet behind the Bestiary cover.

If a child leaves early, nothing is lost. No accounts, no streaks.

Closing question: Where was AlphaFold unsure about this protein, and what might that part be like in a real cell?

Uses: FirstLook (foldcommons.org/tools/pencilorink/firstlook) · Bestiary cover (foldcommons.org/tools/pencilorink/firstlook/bestiary) · PencilOrInk (foldcommons.org/tools/pencilorink)

These sessions are designs; no study shows what they teach.

Protein Club · session 3 of 6 · staff card

A helix from a paper strip

Goal: A coil of a protein chain takes about 3.6 amino acids per turn, not a whole number.

Print: The HelixStrip page (one per child). Scissors and tape.

Screen: None needed. One screen for the HelixStrip guess, if you have it.

  1. Ask the room: how many amino acids make one turn? Take a show of hands for 3, 4 or something between.
  2. Cut out the strip and roll it, dots outward. Look down the side for the dots that line up.
  3. Draw the rolled strip on a field note.

If a child leaves early, nothing is lost. No accounts, no streaks.

Closing question: Why is one turn not a whole number of amino acids?

Uses: HelixStrip (foldcommons.org/tools/nobeltimeline/helix) · FirstLook field note (foldcommons.org/tools/pencilorink/firstlook)

These sessions are designs; no study shows what they teach.

Protein Club · session 4 of 6 · staff card

Folded, but not origami

Goal: In paper you choose every crease. Nobody chooses a protein's folds: bumps and fits in water do it.

Print: A square of scrap paper and a field note per child.

Screen: One shared screen for NotOrigami and VerbSnap.

  1. Everyone folds a simple paper shape and says which creases they chose.
  2. Sort the NotOrigami statements as a room: true of paper, of a protein, or of both.
  3. Play a round of VerbSnap: call each sentence mechanism or purpose.

If a child leaves early, nothing is lost. No accounts, no streaks.

Closing question: If nobody makes the creases, what does fold a protein?

Uses: NotOrigami (foldcommons.org/tools/notmarbles/origami) · VerbSnap (foldcommons.org/tools/verbsnap)

These sessions are designs; no study shows what they teach.

Protein Club · session 5 of 6 · staff card

A shell of many copies

Goal: Many virus shells are built from many copies of one protein, in groups of five and six.

Print: The CapsidNet page with the 20-triangle net (one per child, on card if you can). Scissors and glue.

Screen: None needed. One screen for the CapsidNet predictions, if you have it.

  1. Pick an h and a k as a room and predict how many proteins the shell needs, then check on CapsidNet.
  2. Cut, fold and glue the 20-triangle net into a closed shell.
  3. Draw the shell on a field note.

If a child leaves early, nothing is lost. No accounts, no streaks.

Closing question: How many copies of the protein would a T = 3 shell need?

Uses: CapsidNet (foldcommons.org/tools/celltour/capsid) · FirstLook field note (foldcommons.org/tools/pencilorink/firstlook)

These sessions are designs; no study shows what they teach.

Protein Club · session 6 of 6 · staff card

Families and the Bestiary

Goal: Each protein has a string, a shape and a job. Put the three together.

Print: One FoldTrios deck per table of up to six. The children bring their Bestiary binders.

Screen: None needed. One screen for a last FirstLook deal, if you have it.

  1. Cut the FoldTrios deck and play: collect the string, the shape and the job of one protein.
  2. Each child shows one field note from their Bestiary and reads out the name they gave it.
  3. Deal one last protein for the room and file the field note.

If a child leaves early, nothing is lost. No accounts, no streaks.

Closing question: Which protein's string, shape and job surprised you most?

Uses: FoldTrios (foldcommons.org/class-set/trios) · FirstLook (foldcommons.org/tools/pencilorink/firstlook)

These sessions are designs; no study shows what they teach.

Fold Commons · class set · updated 2026-10-07 · CC BY 4.0. The science on each card is on the tool it links, with its sources.