Science and Ethics of Genome Editing

Returning Cohort 3: July 26-28, 2022

Currently planned as an in-person workshop in Milwaukee, WI.

New Cohort 4: Five Evening Webinar Sessions in Spring of 2022

The Cohort 4 workshop will consist of a series of five live evening Zoom sessions that will discuss various models and successful approaches to using them in the classroom. A course tuition fee of $250 will include a collection of physical models that will be explored during the live zoom sessions. Teachers will keep these materials following the workshop, to jump-start their use of these hands-on materials in their classrooms.

January 19th, 2022 6-7:30pm CST	February 2nd, 2022 6-7:30pm CST	February 16th, 2022 6-7:30pm CST	March 2nd, 2022 6-7:30pm CST	March 16th, 2022 6-7:30pm CST
Overview of CRISPR Science Could you have discovered CRISPR? CRISPR biology and CRISPR biotechnology Introduction to Cas9	Adaptive Immunity Kit How CRISPR protects bacteria from bacteriophage infection The many gifts of microbiology: restriction enzymes, CRISPR, and more!	Making the Cut with CRISPR Cas9 A statistically unique site in the human genome Modeling how Cas9 works A Jmol exploration of Cas9 protein structure What happens after the cut?	CRISPR Biotechnology Cas9 and nucleosomes Cas9 and epigenetics SARS CoV-2 viral diagnostics Regulating gene expression	Engineering Cas9 Base editing Prime editing Bioethics of genome editing

Course Description

The course focuses on (i) the CRISPR based adaptive immunity system in bacteria, and (ii) the many ways in which some of the proteins that function in this natural immunity system are being adapted for use in editing plant and animal genomes. In addition, the course will prepare teachers to lead their students in a thoughtful conversation regarding the ethical implications of this powerful new technology.

What do you get?

Each participant in this webinar series will receive a collection of tactile teaching tools including:

3D printed model of Cas9
The Adaptive Immunity Kit
The Cas9 Making the Cut Kit
The Nucleosome Kit
Additional instructional materials developed in this project

These materials will be shipped to each workshop participant in advance of the first webinar session. Each Wednesday evening session will be recorded for viewing by teachers who are unable to participate in a regularly scheduled live Wednesday session.

Application Information

To offset the cost of the physical models and other tactile teaching tools you will receive, we are charging a $250 tuition fee for this webinar series. In addition to the tactile teaching tools, this fee will guarantee your access to all the digital resources related to this topic developed over the past four years.

Because this is an advanced course, we strongly encourage you to have participated in the CBM's introductory Modeling the Molecular World course before applying to this workshop.

A Community of Professional Educators

Teachers in this program will be encouraged to become active participants in a professional community of educators - committed to documenting the impact of their classroom innovations on student learning, and to sharing the results of that education research with others.