Yesterday I visited Our Lady of Lourdes to talk to Rich Falkler’s 8th grade science class about my work at the WashU genome center. It’s a Catholic school in Clayton, a relatively well-to-do area juxtaposed between St. Louis City and west county. Weeks ago, I asked the teacher about what knowledge base the students would have in genetics, and was impressed to learn that their curriculum included not only Mendel and Punnett squares, but also polygenic traits, sex-linked genes, and genetic engineering. In fact, the first two chapters of their Prentice Hall textbook cover heredity and modern genetics.
The Challenge: Trying Not to Bore 8th Graders
Although I was interested in science as a kid, I don’t remember feeling excited in my middle school science classes. I suppose that’s an age when college is a far-off unknown and there are bigger fish to fry. Certainly the curriculum of my 9th grade biology class was not as comprehensive as what these students had, but then again, that was almost fifteen years ago. I said as much to Patty, the school parent (and relative) who invited me to the class. She reminded me, in half-jest, “you went to public school.” Ouch.
I didn’t expect to wow them, but hoped I’d do enough, at least, to avoid deterring twenty bright young minds from a future career in science. So earlier in the week I consulted with the closest thing we have to kids around here: the Technology Development group. They offered some advice about how to keep kids entertained:
- Put statistics in terms that they understand (i.e., translate megabases to Harry Potter books)
- Talk about money (i.e., how many new corvettes could you buy for the price of a 454 machine)
My friends in TechD also hooked me up with some cool lab items to pass around: 454 picotiter plates, Solexa flowcells, Agilent DNA-sizing plates, and other items. The kids really enjoyed these and fortunately none were dropped or pocketed while being passed around (perish the thought!). I also brought a flash drive with some high-res images of 3730 sequencers, 454/Solexa machines, sequence traces, etc. The class had a Mac computer with a “smart board” (small projection screen) that made these very useful.
High Marks for Curiosity
The teacher told me in advance that his students were very inquisitive, so I opened the floor for questions. The two adults in the room (Rich and Patty) offered up a few to get things going: what’s the difference in sophistication between what we do and FBI DNA forensics labs (a lot), how does our funding picture look with the new administration (not bad), and what exactly do I do (good question)? The students offered some excellent questions as well. They wanted to know why so many recessive alleles (like O blood type) persist in populations. One had seen a show about a girl with hirsutism (hair all over her body), and asked if the cause was genetic. Another just wanted to hear about the freakiest genetically-mutated organisms I’d seen in my time.
That Reminds Me Of A Story…
So as it turned out, I ended up just telling stories – about fruit flies that couldn’t fly, or the day one of our sequencers caught on fire (a slight dramatization). The best story I told them was about mice on McDonalds – an experiment in which researchers at Case Western fed two strains of mice the equivalent of a Big Mac and large Coke every day. One strain, as you’d expect, got the obesity/diabetes/heart disease package as a result. The other strain? Just fine. No weight gain, no health problems.
“Some people are like that too,” I said. “They can eat whatever they want, all the time, and never gain a pound.”
“Katie!” one of them said loudly, accusing a girl in the front row.
Looking Forward to Next Year
I talked for about 45 minutes, and fielded questions for perhaps half an hour. Earlier this week I’d worried that I wouldn’t be able to fill the time, but thanks to inquisitive students, it was easy to do so. I worried, too, about presenting topics (like evolution) that might not be as welcome in a Catholic school classroom. It was a relief to realize that this was not a problem. In fact, in response to a question I posed about human versus chimpanzee genomes, a student mentioned that “supposedly we are descended from them.” Science and religion did not seem incompatible at all.
I left the class with a couple of posters about the human genome and DNA analysis techniques. Rich Falkler mentioned the possibility of another visit next year. I’m certainly willing, and also told him about DNA day, when our genome center’s Outreach department sends an army of “DNA Ambassadors” to area classrooms. Next year I’ll probably be one of them.
Michael K. says
In the modern Roman Catholic Church science does not take a back seat to doctrine. I think they learned their lesson since Galileo. While today’s Catholics don’t reject science, they do oppose scientific research that does not in their view respect the sanctity of life — eg, research on the tissue of an aborted fetus.
Sandra Porter says
I find that kids really like bright colors and 3D structures. I like to use molecular viewing software like Cn3D to show them lots of structures and images of DNA, RNA, ribosomes, and proteins with and without mutations.
I also put up slides with DNA and/or protein sequences and ask them to tell me if the sequences contain genes and what genes they are. Then we talk about how this information gets figured out.
Last, movies are good. WashU has a really nice movie of students visiting their genome center.
You can get the link here: http://scienceblogs.com/digitalbio/2006/08/sequencing_a_genome_the_video.php