Teachers:
Wesley Davidson, Benton Fletcher, Samantha Fountain, Shirin Mathew
Summary:
In this collaborative project, Biology and English students examined genetics issues such as cloning, GMO's, DNA ancestry, gene therapy, and more in order to develop a research-based argument about how social justice issues were impacted by these practices. In Biology, the focus was on making sense of these complex issues in terms of the scientific knowledge needed first to understand from the students' perspective and then the manner in which students could then communicate these issues in meaningful ways to a more general audience. In English, the focus was on assessing the credibility of sources and how to structure an argument meaningfully in a written article worthy of consideration for publication.
The work of this project culminated in a public exhibition in which students acted out roles on both sides of the issues - either as protestors outside of a genetics testing facility who called for these practices to be stopped (or defunded) because of their negative social or environmental impacts or as scientists who could provide evidence for the benefits of continuing to pursue innovations in these areas.
Wesley Davidson, Benton Fletcher, Samantha Fountain, Shirin Mathew
Summary:
In this collaborative project, Biology and English students examined genetics issues such as cloning, GMO's, DNA ancestry, gene therapy, and more in order to develop a research-based argument about how social justice issues were impacted by these practices. In Biology, the focus was on making sense of these complex issues in terms of the scientific knowledge needed first to understand from the students' perspective and then the manner in which students could then communicate these issues in meaningful ways to a more general audience. In English, the focus was on assessing the credibility of sources and how to structure an argument meaningfully in a written article worthy of consideration for publication.
The work of this project culminated in a public exhibition in which students acted out roles on both sides of the issues - either as protestors outside of a genetics testing facility who called for these practices to be stopped (or defunded) because of their negative social or environmental impacts or as scientists who could provide evidence for the benefits of continuing to pursue innovations in these areas.