New year, new lesson plan!

pgEd is excited to bring you our latest lesson plan: ‘Engineering the World Around Us: Genome editing and the environment’. This lesson plan offers an accessible, comprehensive, and engaging approach to bring students into the urgently needed conversation about the benefits and implications of genome editing concerning the environment.

In this lesson plan, we focus on three potential uses of genome editing with the goal of (1) reducing toxicity of cassava, (2) modifying disease-carrying insects to preserve Hawaiian honeycreepers, an endangered species of bird, and (3) reviving an extinct animal – the woolly mammoth – to possibly aid in preventing permafrost thawing. These examples draw from current scientific research and environmental issues at the forefront of genetics and society. Each scenario raises a variety of complex ethical, environmental, and scientific conundrums for students to consider.