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Teachers 'test drive' new genetics curriculum
1:25 p.m., Nov. 13, 2006--“I've learned more from the doctor and the genetic counselor about this condition I might have,” Joe wrote in an e-mail to his friend Megan. “If the test is positive, I will probably have to quit playing soccer. We were hoping I'd get a soccer scholarship to college....What should I do, Megan?” The possibility that Joe may have inherited a disorder known as Marfan syndrome, which affects the body's connective tissues found everywhere from the joints to the eyes, and his dilemma over whether or not to undergo genetic testing is one of the real-world situations that Delaware seventh-graders will encounter in the state's new genetics curriculum, “Our Genes, Our Selves.” The DuPont Company provided primary funding for the new curriculum, with additional support from AstraZeneca. The Delaware Foundation for Science and Mathematics Education also helped bring the new unit on genetics to Delaware classrooms. Forty-three middle-school teachers from across the state, including instructors of science and special education, took a hands-on tour of the new genetics unit on Friday, Nov. 3, at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute in Newark. The institute and the Delaware Department of Education sponsored the workshop, with financial support from the National Science Foundation's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). Delaware EPSCoR was established last year through a competitive grant from the National Science Foundation and funding from the state. It is a partnership of the Delaware Biotechnology Institute, the University of Delaware, Delaware State University, Delaware Technical and Community College and Wesley College. Based at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute, the program is designed to help advance the state's capabilities in bioscience and biotechnology through research, education, and public outreach activities, according to Jeanette Miller, who coordinates the program's outreach activities. Miller and Gwyneth Sharp, secondary science specialist for the Delaware Department of Education, organized the teacher workshop. The new lessons, produced by the Science Education for Public Understanding Program at the University of California at Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of Science, involve students in the process of science--asking questions, collecting and analyzing data and making decisions based on evidence--through a rich combination of experiments, readings, models, debates and role-playing activities. “As new and better curricular resources become available, we provide them to teachers in workshops like this,” Sharp said. It's not uncommon for the state to be hosting one or two teacher workshops every day throughout the school year, according to Sharp. “The idea, as the National Science Foundation has said, is to make sure that teachers have both the materials and the training they need to provide the most effective instruction in the classroom,” she added. “We give them the tools and the framework. This really brings out the art of the teacher in how those science lessons are then delivered to engage students.” As the teachers reviewed a continuum of topics and activities, from Mendel's genetic studies of pea plants in the 1860s, to present-day DNA fingerprinting, master trainer Richard Duquin asked, “What is the process you want your students to understand? What are the things you want them to look at, to observe? What is the evidence before them?”
“Thus, every blood bank in our area constantly wants us to come by to make a donation,” Duquin said, smiling wryly about being on this “most wanted” list. The fanciful creatures Skye and Poppy and their offspring took the spotlight during the “Creature Feature” activity. Each critter was created from foam balls for their bodies, thumbtacks for eyes, pipe cleaners for legs, paper clips for antennae, drinking straws for their legs and the spikes on their backs and a brass fastener for a nose. The teachers paired off to conduct “breeding experiments,” determining with the flip of a coin the particular traits passed on to the grandchildren of Skye and Poppy, such as a curly or straight tail, blue or red leg color, or short or long nose. Then they built models of their critters and analyzed the group to determine dominant and recessive traits. “Ours kind of looks like a white rat smoking a cigar-maybe we should call him 'Fumador,'” Tom Janeka said with a chuckle, as he surveyed his and his partner's critter. Janeka, a UD alumnus, is an award-winning science teacher at George V. Kirk Middle School in Newark. One teacher told the group she has taught a similar activity in her classroom but has used stale marshmallows instead of foam balls for the critters' bodies to cut down on supply costs. “That would never work in my classroom,” another teacher said, as several others nodded in agreement. “My kids would have those marshmallows eaten in a minute, even if they were five days old!” As the teachers took part in the experiments, reviewed the full-color student classroom guide, wrote in their journals, discussed role-playing activities and shared ideas and tips, a sense of camaraderie flowed through the room. “I like this unit. It's definitely more cohesive than the last one, and it builds from the concrete to the abstract,” Janeka noted. “When the kids don't know what they are learning, they learn best.” Janeka said he would take away a number of new ideas from the workshop, including incorporating journaling by his students, as well as new assessments for monitoring their progress. “It's comforting to have programs like these--to have teachers do new things, or to put a new spin on old things,” Janeka said. “It's good for us and for our students.” Article by Tracey Bryant
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