The unique nature of this presentation leverages the extensive knowledge and experience of both a chemistry and a biology educator (who is also a research scientist) to show how teachers can use biotechnologies, such as DNA Fingerprinting and CRISPR Cas-9, to motivate student exploration while expanding their chemistry knowledge and inspiring them to pursue research. This topic is particularly important because CRISPR Cas-9 is at the forefront of medical breakthroughs such as CAR-T cell cancer treatments and gene therapy. Unfortunately, this topic has not yet been used to its full potential in the classroom. This presentation will raise awareness among teachers of how to explain and utilize biotechnologies in various ways. Specifically, this session will show how to use chemistry to explain CRISPR Cas-9 while emphasizing the six elements of life, functional groups, and macromolecules (using hands-on molecular models) to leverage sense making to explain these complex processes.
TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to excite students to learn and apply the chemistry necessary to understand the latest breakthroughs in biotechnology such as DNA Fingerprinting and CRISPR Cas-9. This presentation will showcase the crosscutting concept of systems and system models.
SPEAKERS:
Susan Allison (Dawson Education Service Cooperative: Arkadelphia, AR), Patrycja Krakowiak (Biology Instructor: Hot Springs, AR)