Enhancing Scientific Communication About and Ethical Reasoning Surrounding Gene Modifications Through a Collaborative Learning Experience

Abstract

Scientific communication and the ability to think about the ethical impact if one's work are necessary skills for all scientists to obtain. These are especially important skills for scientists working in cutting edge fields that have the potential for major societal implications, including scientists working with genetic modifications of humans and animals. Unfortunately, the traditional undergraduate curriculum generally does not provide many opportunities for students to practice communicating their science to the general public, nor does it offer much ethical training beyond standard responsible conduct of research requirements. Herein, we describe a novel collaborative learning experience that allows students who are studying modern genetic modification techniques (including traditional methods of gene modification, as well as newer advances such as RNAi and CRISPR/cas9) to work with students who are studying ethical reasoning. As part of this collaboration, the science students are required to hone their understanding of a technique used in genetic modification and to explain this technique to a largely non‐scientific audience (the ethics students). The ethics students, in turn, teach the science students about some of the ethical concerns that can arise around these techniques. By participating in this experience, students gain a better understanding of how to best communicate complex, technical information with non‐scientists and a fuller idea of how ethical decision making can impact their lives as laboratory scientists and as citizens of the world. Both the faculty and the students involved in this collaboration found this to be a worthwhile and enjoyable experience. The faculty were particularly impressed by the high levels of student work and thought put into this project. This poster will address the assignments that were given, the grading standards for these assignments, general student opinions on this project, and ideas for where and when to fit such collaborative projects into the undergraduate curriculum.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.