YHS Teacher Attends Genetics Workshop – Yankton Daily Press

Sanford Health and Harvard Medical School have collaborated to bring information and education about personal genetics and research to classrooms and communities in Massachusetts and South Dakota.

One such program the two facilities have created is the Personal Genetics Education Project (pgEd), which offers workshops that bring awareness and create community understanding about development in genetics and how they affect health.

Lindsay Kortan, who teaches ninth-grade physical science at Yankton High School (YHS), jumped at the chance to learn more about genetics by attending the pgEd Genetics and Social Justice Summer Institute in Brockton, Massachusetts this summer.

A member of the South Dakota Science Teachers Association, Kortan is also a Sanford ambassador and has done research with the organization for several years. It was through this involvement that she was invited to attend the weeklong pgEd conference.

"The setup was them showing (the attendees) their lesson plans, allowing us to experience what type of content is in the lesson and what kind of discussions/questions we might have in the classroom," she explained. "It covered a wide range of things, everything from the eugenics movement to ethics in genetics testing to personal genetics testing."

As someone who developed a strong interest in genetics through her studies at the University of South Dakota, all of this was right up Kortans alley.

"(Genetics) was one of my favorite topics to teach in a biology classroom," she said.

Prior to coming to YHS, Kortan had taught grades 10-12 science biology, physiology, physics and chemistry in the Bon Homme school district for five years.

She admitted that introducing what she learned at the conference into her current class will be difficult, but plans to spread her newfound information in other ways.

"Ive shared my knowledge with some of the other teachers and offered to help them incorporate it into their classrooms if theyre interested," she said.

She plans to be part of next summers workshop in Sioux Falls, which will be hosted by Sanford PROMISE and pgEd.

"From an education perspective, the pgED information is great for teaching our kids those critical-thinking and difficult life-decision questions they might have to encounter in their lifetime, especially now with the way genetic testing and technology is advancing," she said. "Its getting more prevalent in making decisions, even down to doctors looking at your genetic code to know what drugs they should prescribe to you, or whether the drug will be effective or not. Its important for kids to know that information before they get into those critical situations where they have to make an (important) decision. The process of going through that critical thinking and seeing different viewpoints is always a good thing in the classroom.

"Im currently pregnant, so some of those genetic questions that you get asked because of pregnancy and fertility treatments (that) I received really brought it to a personal level for me."

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YHS Teacher Attends Genetics Workshop - Yankton Daily Press