Local Science Teachers Get A Lesson At Jackson Laboratory – Hartford Courant

The Jackson Laboratory on Monday kicked off week-long trainings and lab sessions to bring high school science teachers up to speed on rapidly changing gene research.

The Farmington research center brought together more than a dozen teachers from Connecticut and Massachusetts. The focus in the "Teaching the Genome Generation" program is on bioinformatics, the science of collecting and analyzing biological data such as genetic codes, and ethics related to the gathering and use of personal genetic and health information.

The professional development program is intended to give teachers training to put in place "modern genetics and genomics" education programs in their schools, said Charles Wray, director of courses and conferences at Jackson Lab.

Jackson Lab has trained about 70 Connecticut teachers in the last three years and schools, he said, are using content provided by the Bar Harbor, Maine-based lab. The content includes knowledge, laboratory equipment and other resources.

The study of genomics, the part of genetics focused on sequencing and analyzing an organism's genome, or the DNA content within one cell of an organism, is advancing quickly and requires teachers to learn new material, much of it complicated and technical.

In addition, students with an interest in biology and other branches of science want to learn about genomics, Wray said. Genetic research has advanced far beyond lesson plans of the past that focused on the work of Gregor Mendel, the 19th century scientist who used insects in gene research, he said.

"Students don't care about fruit flies," Wray told the teachers gathered at Trinity College in Hartford. "It's not a great way to excite a student."

Genomics also offers a potentially lucrative career choice that would be more accessible for youngsters who train early, teachers say.

Sister Mary Jane Paolella, a teacher at Sacred Heart Academy, a women's Roman Catholic school in Hamden, said the teacher development classes help her connect with other teachers and Jackson Lab.

Keeping up with scientific developments is not difficult, she said: "I'm constantly reading."

And Barbara Morales, a teacher at CREC Academy of Science and Innovation in New Britain who earned her bachelor's degree in 1980, said professional development is essential.

"I have to keep going to school because things are changing," Morales said.

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Local Science Teachers Get A Lesson At Jackson Laboratory - Hartford Courant