pgEd is based in Boston, but since one of our members lives in Midcoast Maine, we are able to connect with many Maine students all over the state. Over the last two days, pgEd has been at Brunswick High School, thanks to an invitation from Ms. Dumont in the Biology Department.
This was another really great group of students – We also saw some of Ms. Kirk’s students, too – so many wonderful questions, conversations, and (respectful) disagreements. As we say in all our posts about school visits – these topics make for excellent conversation starters with parents or family members who ask “What did you do at school today?”. Students mentioned a few specific articles, or asked about other issues/developments in research lately. Maybe consider sharing some of these links with friends and family? Here are a couple of links:
Storing Digital Data in DNA – from the Wall Street Journal
Encode: The rough guide to the human genome – Discover Magazine is a great resource to follow science news..
Scientific gullibility sparks wild Neanderthal cloning rumor – Boston.com (I will note here Prof. Church is on our advisory board!)
One in a Billion – a story that talks in more detail about Nic Volker, the boy who had his genome sequenced as part of his successful medical treatment. Watch the video if you don’t want to read the whole article.
Want to know what’s in my DNA? Parents grapple with delving into their kid’s DNA – more about some of what we talked about today regarding parents, kids, and who gets to know about your DNA and when…
Biologist’s Mother’s Day Song. As promised. You are going to laugh and you are going to learn about mitochondrial DNA at the same time. Transplacental inheritance gets a mention, too!
Students, if you have more comments or questions, leave a comment or email me. I write back to all students who write to me! Lastly, if you liked the topics we covered, and also love science and research, you might be interested in some of the programs for high school students offered at Mount Desert Island Biological Lab. Dana helps teach in the Summer Academy in Genomics, they are taking applications now. It is fully funded, and is a really great experience for students who love biology!