My students need onion root tip slides, a mitosis interactive whiteboard exercise, a human chromosome analysis kit, a synthetic blood kit, and a forensics demo kit to do classic labs on Genetics topics.
I am teaching Genetics for the first time. Imagine my dismay when I discovered the only resources we had to teach Genetics was a pitiful pile of dusty, old articles with questions for students to answer.
Genetics is a half credit course at my high school.
To graduate, students must earn four credits in Science classes. The more rigorous courses are one credit each, such as Chemistry, Physics, Anatomy and Physiology. The students that I have will be an eclectic bunch. Some will take Genetics because they are interested in it. However, mostly, I will have students that are taking the class just to earn a half credit towards graduation. I want them to enjoy the class and learn a lot.
My Project
My goal is to engage my students in Genetics using hands-on lab activities. With your help, I will be able to develop four classic lab activities in Genetics:
1. Mitosis - Using onion root tip slides, students will use existing microscopes to view actual plant cells in varying stages of mitosis.
2. Karyotyping - In this activity, students will assemble karyotypes of normal males/females and several genetic disorders.
3. Blood typing - In this activity, students will do ABO blood typing with very realistic results. The requested materials are all synthetic so there is no risk of transmitting disease.
4. Gel electrophoresis - In this activity, students will cast gels, load DNA, and see the banding patterns of DNA fingerprints.
I used to work in a molecular genetics lab.
I am so excited to have the opportunity to teach Genetics to high school students. I do not have a supplies or equipment budget and could never afford to provide the requested materials on my own. With my know-how and enthusiasm, I hope students will see how interesting Genetics can be.
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