Yikes, I think I just agreed to take part in an elementary school career
fair to talk about my career in a genetics laboratory. Now, considering
that asthma genetics (or, more specifically, the genetics of a oh-so-dull
gene called alpha catenin) would bore kids to death, I need to find a more
interesting genetic topic to share. Thus, with help from my supervisor, we
decided that gerbil coat colour is far more interesting. Let's face it,
furry playful rodents are far more interesting to kids than itty bitty
amounts of clear liquids in clear tubes. And certainly showing 10 year olds
copies of the human genome would send them out of the room screaming. Heck,
looking at the human genome sends me out of the room screaming!
So, I haven't been in elementary school for quite a few years but I know
several of you have been there recently (either as a student or a teacher).
Any ideas on how to teach a lesson in genetics using gerbils? I was
thinking of taking a detective approach and talk about discovering recessive
genes in parents by looking at the offspring's coat color.
For the geneticists out there, do you have any citations for the structure
of coat color genes? Are any of these genes mapped on the gerbil genome?
Is there anything known about the sequence of the gerbil genome? I'll go
ahead and do a NCBI search and see if any gerbil genes can be found of
GeneBank.
For the recent elementary students out there, what were the best part of
career fair presentations? Any ideas for me to keep kids interested?
Thanks alot everyone!
Deb Adams
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