Biotechnology
Improving life with biology?
Your task is to pick an area of biotechnology that is or was intended to improve the quality of life.
Plant biology
Medicine
Forensics
On Thursday....
- Do some searching
- Keep track of useful search terms
- Keep a bread crumb trail of useful sites that you find, what you learn, and where it leads you.
- At the end of the period, write a summary of what you learned.
- I will reply, provide some questions and/or direction Thursday night.
Mrs. Sandbo's Breadcrumb Trail
At first, I thought I wanted to research the role of DNA with organ transplants because I heard about this topic on NPR recently. So, I did a search for DNA + organ transplants + + personalized medicine + NPR
1. I found a link to a story called “would you accept DNA from a murder?” It talked about the possibility of people experiencing changes after having organ transplants. It sounded really interested, but didn’t focus on DNA research http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2013/06/10/190354853/would-you-accept-dna-from-a-murderer
2. I changed directions after looking at the links from my search and changed my keywords to DNA and organ transplants.
3. I found an article about using DNA sequencing to detect early organ rejection written by the National Human Genome Research Project http://www.genome.gov/27544325
4. I followed a link in this article to information about single nucleotide polymorphisms, and went to http://www.genome.gov/Glossary/index.cfm?id=185
5. This page provided interesting about these molecules as well as Francis Collin’s research with Cystic Fibrosis.
I decided to focus my research on using gene therapy to cure cystic fibrosis.
6. I found a resource we covered in Advanced Biology at the Learn Genetics site, so I reviewed that information at http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/genetherapy/gtintro/, which lead me to….
Reflection…
Today I learned…..
Tomorrow, I am going to specifically focus on...
As you explore,
- Steer yourself toward topics that include information about DNA technology.
- Keep track of the timeline -- it is OK to go back in history, focus on the present, or dream about the future, but know where you are.
- Look for areas of misunderstanding and/or controversy.
- Look for evidence that this technology has/had the potential to improve quality of life.
- Look for questions that arise.
- Keep track of useful resources.
- Think about linking to videos or animations that explain the technology being used.
- Think about how this will affect you as a voting citizen.
Photo images:
Medical Image Retrieved from:
Forensics Image Retrieved from: https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRCtA3zKJAx3v4VX9jp3bKlS9sxkIDxx4dTnFbgDosGbUbXeUhS