Using “Genethics” with Students

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From the course by American Museum of Natural History

Genetics and Society: A Course for Educators

72 ratings

American Museum of Natural History

Genetics and Society: A Course for Educators

72 ratings

How have advances in genetics affected society? What do we need to know to make ethical decisions about genetic technologies? This course includes the study of cloning, genetic enhancement, and ownership of genetic information. Course participants will acquire the tools to explore the ethics of modern genetics and learn how to integrate these issues into their classrooms.

From the lesson

Genomics in Medicine

You will see how genetic information is being used to individualize medical treatments and take a video tour of the Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics at the American Museum of Natural History. You will also apply the Science and Engineering practices from A Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Education Standards in considering how to engage students in discussion about ethics.

Using “Genethics” with Students6:32

Meet the Instructors

Rob DeSalle, Ph.D.
Curator
Division of Invertebrate Zoology
David Randle, Ph.D.
Senior Manager of Professional Development
Education Department

[BLANK_AUDIO]

Hi.

This week I'd like to talk to you a little bit about how to use some of these

ethical issues and the framework that you've already, hopefully,

had some time to practice with with your students.

I'd like to frame that around a discussion of some of

the new standards that we've been developing here in the United

States called the Next Generation Science Standards, and focus specifically on

one part of those, which is, are the science and engineering practices.

which are going to tie us into,

this idea of, of something that scientists

do, which is create evidence based arguments.

And that's works really with that thining about these ethical issues.

It's also in the United States we have very high degree of focus on the common

core literacy standards and I'll briefly mention the

standards that apply to this kind of work.

and then think about some of the actual

things that you could do with your students

in terms of framing their examination of some of these ethical issues.

Really briefly, our next generation science standards came

out of a process, long process, that began with.

The, a creation of a framework for K through 12 Science

Education, and this was a consortium of a lot of people.

mostly run by the National Research Council

which eventually led to the release in

the spring of 2013, of the next generation science standards.

And the big, the big ideas here and you can go and you know, both the

framework and the standards are available free online

and I really urge you to go investigate them.

The basic idea is that the three big categories of ideas that are incorporated

into the next generation standards are science

practices, so what do scientists and engineers do?

and what defines this process of scientific inquiry,

or the process of, of engineering solutions to problems?

It's also framed by cross cutting concepts, which are ideas

that stretch across all the domains of science and engineering.

And then, what we've always though about as the standards before are the, the

core content or the disciplinary core ideas

which are the, the science facts that we

want our kids to know.

So, for the purposes of this course, I'd like you

to think a little bit about the science in engineering practices.

So, these were the things that scientists actually do.

And in particular what we've asked you guy to

do, is to engage in argument based on evidence.

So, so looking at the science of genetics and looking at

some of the ethical issues we've asked you to basically construct

an argument. So, what is an evidence based argument.

It's basically a justified plan about an issue

or, you know, in broad terms, about the world.

others will attempt to identify the claim's strengths and, and weaknesses.

Like, you've done this with, with ethical issues.

By looking at, at stakeholders and what their arguments are.

And their take on the different ethical issues that.

We've looked at.

It's also critical for us to be able to detect bad science or inaccurate science,

or a viewpoint that is, maybe, couched as science that has a hidden agenda.

So here in the United States, there's been

a big movement towards common core literacy standards.

And I just wanted to briefly emphasize a couple of

these that tie into what we've been talking about this week.

There's the creation

of informative or, or an explanatory text and this would

basically be a precursor for coming up with your evidence based

argument so this is basically looking at the science and having

your students be able to actually explain the science in text.

So looking at something that is presented, you know, by you, by the textbooks, by

anything that they may see on video and

then coming up with their own written explanation

of that science.

The next level of that is to go to the argument.

We're basically now there using their own reasoning.

And using the science to construct a claim that supports their ethical position.

Want to talk briefly about a couple things that you could do with your students.

So, we've presented you with a lot of different issues in this course.

we'll deal with genetically

modified organisms next week. We've already talked about cloning.

We've talked about stem cells.

All of these things are, are issues that have multiple stakeholders

and your students may feel very strongly about some of them.

So what I did when I dealt with these issues with

my students is that I first had them examine the issue

and the way we did that was to actually have them

put together a position paper very similar to the one that we

had you do for this course.

so, I would have them choose an issue,

identify the stakeholders and their positions, think about

the solution or solutions, and then, come up

with their own position and defend that solution.

after they did that, I'd broke them into teams.

If the class kind of shook out fairly evenly, and there were people on

different sides of the position, I would

sort of give them position that they favored.

And, make then into debate teams. And give them some time, you know?

As a, a group to kind of put together th-, their defense.

And then, Use that, There's a lot

of, you know, really good debate protocols available.

I suggest that you would use one.

And spend, depending on how much time you have in your class.

I would, I think you can do one of these issues in about a half an hour.

you know with opening statements

by both teams.

you know some, some exploration of the core issues.

Some back and forth and then some concluding statements

and then I would use a rubric, for the

students in the class who weren't on the debate

teams in order for them to evaluate the arguments.

to get them really involved in the issue as well.

And, you know, whether you have a winner or a loser

really doesn't matter in these debates, it's really that the science.

You're keeping the kids like on track with the

core issues of the science, the science stays accurate.

and that kids are making, you know really good arguments, you know, without.

Judgement.

So I hope this helps you in thinking about

how you might want to use these issues with students.

I hope that your experience in doing the peer graded assignments in this course

gives you a framework for thinking about how you would use it with your kids.

And next week we'll talk a little bit about how.

you could present an exploration of

genetically modified organisms to your students.

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