How can protecting our telomeres help us live longer, healthier lives?

Suitable for 14-19-year olds (secondary and high schools, and college), this article and accompanying activity sheet can be used in the classroom, STEM clubs and at home.

This resource links to KS4 and KS5/Grade 9-10 and Grade 11-12 biology and psychology.

It can also be used as a careers resource and links to Gatsby Benchmarks (UK):
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 Jue Lin and Dr Elissa Epel from The University of California San Fransisco in the US. They are investigating how telomeres are affected by the environments we live in and the lifestyles that we lead, and how looking after our telomeres can help us live longer, healthier lives.

• This resource also contains interviews with Jue and Elissa, offers an insight into careers in molecular biology, and provides students with tips on how to manage stress. If your students have questions for Jue and Elissa, they can send them through the Futurum Careers website.

• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) to prompt students to reflect on Jue and Elissa’s research and challenges them to write a short story about a world in which people live longer, healthier lives.

This resource was first published by 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).

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