In addition to our efforts in the classroom, pgEd is involved in activities to accelerate genetics education to prepare our communities for the fast-approaching revolution in personal genetics. As such, one of our goals is to bring together genetics educators to generate ideas, foster collaboration, and expand the use of existing resources.
GETeducated! The first of these meetings, dubbed “GETed,” took place in conjunction with the 2012 Genomes Environments Traits (GET) Conference, which was sponsored by the Personal Genome Project at Harvard Medical School.
GETed 2013
GETed 2013 is bringing together educators from around the nation to brainstorm strategies for raising awareness about personal genetics. We will be coordinating GETed for a second year with the GET Conference:
GET: Thursday, April 25th at 8am to Friday, April 26th at noon, Back Bay Events Center
GETed: Friday, April 26th at 1pm to Saturday, April 27th at 5pm, Harvard Medical School
Themes
GETed 2012 focused our attention on developing “game plans” with mass appeal – strategies for putting personal genetics into the mainstream – and two of these are already in place. GETed 2013 will be centered on the theme of ‘Inclusion.’ We will focus on grassroots approaches for raising awareness, especially in those communities with skepticism about the intent of research, concerns about the application of genomic technologies, and limited access to resources. We will also focus on controversial topics that can simultaneously propel and stymie discussions of genetics.
Our goal will be to accelerate efforts for:
(1) Ensuring that all communities, regardless of socioeconomic status, will be equally informed about the benefits that can come from personal genetics. We will address the challenges of scaling up targeted outreach and discuss topics including literacy, language, and cultural relevance, and our role in working with other nations to advance awareness around the globe.
(2) Fostering a dialog about controversial topics that make some people wary of genetics. We will explore topics including religion, reproductive choice, race, and the genetic basis of behavior and cognition as well as concerns related to eugenics and magnification of socioeconomic disparities.
In addition, we will organize a session highlighting the progress since our last meeting. Two of the game plans that are now in place are our cell phone game, called Map-Ed, and a pipeline to promote the portrayal of personal genetics on television shows. Feel free to try Map-Ed on your cell phone or desktop to browse the interactive map and pin yourself after answering five questions about genetics.
Click links for GETed 2013 Agenda and List of Participants
Many thanks to:
Sponsored Educational Tool:
To celebrate the 60th Anniversary of Watson & Crick’s discovery of the structure of DNA, Genentech has created an iPad app to engage and inspire a broader audience through genetics-based puzzles. The app offers a fun, educational experience that shares their passion for science with scientists and non-scientists alike. pgEd, whose mission is accelerating education and engagement about personal genetics, welcomes this new project into the fold! Check out the trailer below, and get the game here!