Genetics - Biotechnology Education Program

Biotechnology Education Program

Teacher: J. Kirk Brown: Tracy, CA
Subject: Interdisciplinary 2 week Biotech Curriculum
Grade Level(s): 9 10 11 12
Target Audience: Across curriculum
Class Time: 2-3 weeks
Brief Summary: The Biotechnology Education Program is a two-three week multidisciplinary, spiraled curriculum that exposes entire high schools to the issues involved/or brought about by improvements in biotechnology. Math, English, Social Science, and Science lessons have been written by teachers to explore themes over a given year. This was developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Student Objective(s): Students will explore many issues related to the impacts of biotechnology through Science, Social Science, Math and English.
Description of Activities: Some of the activities in science include micropipetting labs, electrophoresis of dyes, electrophoresis of pre-cut DNA, electrophoresis of restricted DNA, gel quantitation, density of agarose experiments, x-ray diffraction, and various others. The activities in math are Hardy Weinberg activities, single event and double event probability, genetic testing, analysis of DNA fragments, test solutions. Social Science activities center around making ethical decisions and the impacts of technology on history. The English activities focus on the analysis of Jurassic Park during the sophomore year and Frankenstein during the Junior year plus other activities.
Integration (tying it all together): The Biotechnology education program is a wonderful way to involve the whole school or a very small part of the school into integrated instruction.
Further Information and References: The Biotechnology Education Program is functioning in seven schools in California and starting in ten schools in Louisiana. It is being further developed by BIORAD, Co. and the Stanford Human Genome Center.

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