What we do
Outreach program:
We are available to lead facilitated, interactive
workshops on
ethical issues in personal genetics. Our workshops engage students
about the
current technologies that are in use or under development, and
encourage participants to think critically about the risks and benefits
of biotechnology. Workshops are available for
high school and college students, and can be tailored to
general adult audiences.
In our presentations we often discuss informed consent, personal family dynamics, privacy concerns, and ownership of genetic information, all from the perspectives of physicians, health insurers, politicians, employers, children, and extended families. Information on previous presentations can be found here.
Curriculum development:
pgEd's curricular materials are designed to assist high school teachers
and college professors in including the ethical, legal, and social
issues of
genome sequencing in their classes. We hope that the materials may also
be useful to academic clubs, debate teams, and community groups in
general. These materials can either be used as is, or tailored to an
educator's needs.
The first three lesson plans, including handouts, discussion and testing materials, and PowerPoint slides, are available here.
Other resources:
If you use a RSS
reader, consider subscribing to the pgEd
feed on the social bookmarking site del.icio.us.
Part blog,
part annotated bibliography, we use this tool to track popular
press and journal articles that are broadly related to ethical and
social issues in personal genetics, and
also to the specific topics covered in the lesson plans. You
can also simply visit the site at www.del.icio.us/pged.
For more information, please contact Dana Waring.