Genetic Engineering

This curriculum unit is designed to have middle school students apply biology content knowledge to the controversial issue of genetic engineering.   The students will learn the basic biological principles that allow for the various applications of genetic engineering, such as cloning, xenotransplantation, gene therapy, and genetically modified foods. They will examine the process for each application as well as examine all the ethical implications.  Throughout the unit the students will examine and evaluate the research about genetic engineering and keep track of how their own opinion is changing as their knowledge base increases.  They will use this information to decide whether to plant genetically modified foods in the school garden. One major purpose of this unit is to teach the students that, in order to make an informed decision about a highly technical issue that has an impact on many of their lives, they will need to have a high level of scientific literacy. 

This unit is designed for the biology portion of a 7th grade science class.  In this unit students will be deciding whether genetic engineering is appropriate.  They will explore the various applications of genetic engineering, through readings, labs, discussions, and debates.  The students will explore cloning, gene therapy, transgenic transplantation, and genetically modified foods.  For each of these topics students will be presented with readings about each topic.  The students will be asked to identify bias in the readings and evaluate the validity of sources.  After each new topic the students will use a discussion protocol to justify to their classmates if genetic engineering is appropriate.  They will be tracking their position throughout the unit plan recording which information and which student’s arguments impacted their position most.   The students will also perform many hands-on and virtual labs to help them better understand the processes of genetic engineering and how it relates to their understanding of cellular anatomy and physiology, genes and genetics, and natural selection and evolution.  The students will end the unit with a class town hall debate to determine whether we should plant genetically modified vegetables in our schoolyard garden.