Bringing revolutionary gene editing techniques to undergraduates

Suitable for 14 to 19-year-olds (secondary and high schools, and college), this article and accompanying activity sheet can be used in the classroom or shared with students online.

This resource links to KS4 and KS5 Biology.

It can also be used as a careers resource and links to Gatsby Benchmarks:
Gatsby Benchmark 2: Learning from career and labour market information
Gatsby Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

• This teaching resource explains the work of Dr Anil Challa, from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Associate Professor Dr Lynn Kee, from Stetson University, both in the US, who are bringing CRISPR-Cas9 to the university classroom and teaching undergraduates how to use this important tool, as part of the CRISPR in the Classroom Network.
• This resource also contains interviews with Anil and Lynn. If you or your students have a question for them, you can submit it online – go to the article using the Futurum link below and scroll to the bottom of the page. Anil and Lynn will reply!
• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) to prompt students to reflect on Anil and Lynn’s research, and tasks them to discuss the societal and ethical implications of CRISPR technology.

This resource was first published on Futurum Careers, a free online resource and magazine aimed at encouraging 14-19-year-olds worldwide to pursue careers in science, tech, engineering, maths, medicine (STEM) and social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE).

If you like these free resources – or have suggestions for improvements –, please let us know and leave us some feedback. Thank you!