Exploring Difference in the Biology Classroom is a series of virtual programs bringing together educators and researchers for conversations about the ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) of genetics.
Organized by the Personal Genetics Education Project and the Center for ELSI Resources & Analysis, this series of ELSI conversations invites researchers to share their work with educators at the forefront of teaching science in middle schools, high schools, and undergraduate institutions. Each webinar will begin with short presentations from a pair of ELSI researchers and Q&A (1-hour), followed by a discussion on classroom integration strategies (30-minutes).
Register for our next program below. To get updates on additional events and resources from this series, join pgEd’s mailing list!
UPCOMING EVENTS
What Genetic Ancestry Tests Mean (and What They Don’t)
Date: Tuesday April 11, 6:00-7:30pm ET
Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEucuyopz8tHNSboiL2ym7tx6_OgkPgS74W
Genetic ancestry testing is often framed as a means to understanding who we are and where we came from. But what, exactly, do the results of these tests mean? Why are genetic data from ancestry tests of interest to individuals, scientists, and companies? What important questions arise about the uses of these data? Facilitating classroom conversations about genetic ancestry testing can be a powerful way to both connect scientific advances in the real world with lessons about human genetic variation and support students in becoming informed consumers.
In this session, two experts in genetics and anthropology will share their perspectives on genetic ancestry testing and address questions that students commonly have. Attendees will gain insight on the process of science, and learn how test results can be interpreted (or misinterpreted) as a source of information about racial and ethnic identities, familial relationships, and population history.
Captioning: Live captioning services will be provided by a certified Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) captioner and available via closed captioning.
After the session, participants are invited to join pgEd for a 30-minute discussion about resources, experiences, opportunities, and hurdles for including this content in the classroom.
Panelists: Janina Jeff, PhD, MS & Jada Benn Torres, PhD
PAST EVENTS
Engaging with Genetic Disability and Difference
Date: Wednesday March 8, 6:00-7:30pm ET
How to represent wide-ranging family structures and personal identities using the latest pedigree nomenclature
Date: Thursday December 1, 6:00-7:30pm ET
ABOUT THE ORGANIZERS
Personal Genetics Education Project (pgEd), Harvard Medical School
pgEd’s dedicated team of scientists, social scientists, educators, and advocates is working to expand conversation about the benefits and ethical, legal, and social implications of genetics. Since 2006, pgEd has engaged with people from many walks of life in a variety of forums, including schools, libraries, museums, places of worship, conferences, the halls of US Congress, youth groups, and community spaces.
Center for ELSI Resources & Analysis (CERA)
CERA is led by a multi-disciplinary team with advanced expertise in genomics, bioethics, legal analysis, social science research, and related fields. Our team is building a community of researchers focused on the ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) of genetics and genomics and provides the ELSIhub platform to enhance the production, sharing, and use of ELSI research.
FUNDING ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Support for this program is provided by the ELSI Research Program of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (1U24HG010733-01).