Classroom Visit (4/5): Genome Editing & the Environment – Hartford, CT

Gill was invited back to Options Employment & Education Services in Hartford, CT, to deliver a program series for high school students. From May 7 through June 4, she will present a different PGED lesson. The fourth lesson is ‘Genome Editing & the Environment: Engineering the World Around Us’.

About the lesson: Advances in genetic technologies are accompanied by questions for society about if, where, and how to apply these tools. A new generation of genetic tools has opened a pathway to engineering the world around us to potentially improve human health, agriculture, and the environment. In this lesson plan, we focus on three potential uses of genetic engineering tools with the goal of (1) reducing food toxicity, (2) modifying disease-carrying insects to preserve an endangered species, and (3) reviving an extinct animal – the woolly mammoth – to possibly aid in slowing permafrost thawing. Each scenario, drawing on current research, raises a variety of complex ethical, environmental, and scientific conundrums for students to consider.