Manipulating Biology: Costs, Benefits and Controversies

Classroom Activity 2:  CRISPR Literacy Gallery Walk

Lesson Overview

In this activity, students will work in teams to summarize articles and list any pros and cons of gene drive technology on a medium-sized poster board.  Once the students have finished their summaries, they will report out to the class via gallery walk.  Since my classroom has eight lab tables for teams, I have selected eight articles from Science News for Students, one for each team.²⁷  Each article also contains a list of defined vocabulary that may be unfamiliar to students, but are essential to understanding the article.  I will even ask students to select five vocabulary words that they want their classmates to be responsible for learning.  Of course, there will be some overlap of vocabulary words, which is fine because it will show students which vocabulary words are the most important.  The list of pre-selected articles are as follows:

1. Can DNA editing save endangered species?
2. New tools can fix genes one letter at a time
3. Molecular scissors fix disease-causing flaw in human embryos
4. Even some Olympic athletes cheat with drugs
5. Gene editing swats at mosquitoes
6. Expert panel approves human gene editing
7. Gene editing creates buff beagles
8. Scientists hide a real movie within a germ’s DNA

I am also likely to have a few advanced students that appreciate a challenge.  Therefore, I have listed three articles could substitute for the aforementioned readings from the parent publisher, Science News.²⁸

1. Cancer cells engineered with CRISPR slay their own kin
2. Researchers say CRISPR edits to a human embryo worked. But critics still doubt it
3. Most Americans think it’s OK to tweak a baby’s genes to prevent disease

Preparation

If there is technology available in the classroom, all of the cited articles are accessible on the internet.  It would be wise to have printed copies of the articles in case of technological failure.  Be sure to provide students with art supplies depending on how involved you want the students’ class notes to be.  Some teachers ask students to sketch pictures for their gallery walk, which would require an assortment of art supplies, but would also require more class time to complete.

Implementation

Organize students into groups based on their ability levels.  Assign articles based on reading levels or allow the students to pick from the selection of articles provided.  Provide a medium-sized poster board or sheet (3 to 4 feet in width).  Ask the students to students to read their assigned article, determine five (5) key points that they would use to summarize their article, and define 3-4 vocabulary words that are essential to understanding the article.  This should take no longer than 20 minutes.  Ask the students to hang up their posters somewhere around the classroom and select one person who will be the expert on the article.  The expert will stay with the group’s poster and explain any information on the poster that their visiting classmates cannot understand.  The students will then visit each poster in their teams to take notes and new vocabulary.  Students who volunteered to be experts ought to consult their group for notes at the end of the gallery walk.  I often give extra credit to groups if their expert can recite some of the information they learned from the other groups.  In this case, I would ask the experts to recite one pro or con from each of the eight articles read in class.