Teresa & Carl
Your Role: You are a genetics counselor and have received a rather odd
email. The email is from Teresa and Carl, two high school students who
are planning to get married right after high school.
The Rather Odd Email:
Dear Doctor, The other day at lunch, my girlfriend and I were
talking about what our kids are going to look like – eye color, hair color,
height, and all sorts of things. Then, my so-called best friend Joe tells
my girl that she shouldn't marry me because all of her children will have
polio and migraines. He told her that my mom is always talking about
people in my family who have them.
So we went home and made a list of every disease that we've
heard our parents talk about. We want you to look at our list and tell us
if we should get married or not. We don't want our children to have any
diseases - you can predict these sorts of things just by knowing the
diseases in our family, right?
Thank you,
Carl
List the Facts of what you now know:
Resources:
• Google
• The Tech Museum of InnovationTM - Mutations and Disease website
• KidsHealthTM - Genetic Counseling website
• Learn.Genetics - Genetic Science Learning Center website
• Science textbook
Need-to-Knows:
1. List of Diseases in Our Families: Breast Cancer, Color-blindness, Heart
Attack, Migraines, PKU, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Stroke, Celiac Disease,
Down Syndrome, Huntington’s Disease, Mumps, Polio, Sickle Cell
Anemia, Thalassemia, Chicken Pox, Diabetes, Measles, Muscular
Dystrophy, Prostate Cancer, Skin Cancer, Tay-Sachs Disease
•Can we tell if we are going to pass our diseases on to our children?
•Can mutations be a positive thing, instead of a negative?
Reevaluate Your Hypotheses: You must present 3 as a group.
Team Project Grade: Each team will research the listed diseases and
create a presentation for Teresa and Carl.
Individual Project Grade: Each student will write an email response to
Teresa and Carl explaining the team findings.
2. How long do I have to write them back? Friday, 12/12/15
Answer the following learning Issues:
•What is a genetics counselor?
Area
Above Avg.
35 Pts. Each
Average
30 Pts. Each
Below Avg.
25 Pt. Each
No Evidence
0 Pts. Each
Final Product
* All learning issues
addressed
* 3 or more
hypotheses present
* High quality final
product
* Problem Summary.
Learning issues/new
information
integrated well
presented
* Hypotheses well
presented
* Solution and
defense well
presented
* Most learning
issues addressed
* 2 hypotheses
present
* Fair quality final
product
* Problem Summary.
Learning issues/new
information
integrated presented
* Hypotheses
presented
* Solution and
defense presented
* Few learning issues
addressed
* 1 hypothesis
presented
* Low quality final
product
* Problem Summary.
Learning issues/new
information
integrated poorly
presented
* Hypotheses poorly
presented
* Solution and
defense poorly
presented
* Individual works
well with other
members of the
group
* Individual
communicates well
with other members
of the group
* Individual carries
out their individual
responsibilities
* Individual works
acceptably with
group members
* Individual
communicates
acceptably with
group
* Individual mostly
carries out their
individual
responsibilities
* Individual does not
work well with group
members
* Individual does not
communicate well
with group members
* Individual attempts
but fails to carry out
their individual
responsibilities
* No learning
issues addressed
* No hypothesis
presented
* No quality final
product
* Problem
Summary. Learning
issues/new
information
integrated not
presented
* Hypotheses not
presented
* Solution and
defense not
presented
* Individual
interferes with
group members
* Individual does
not communicate
at all
* Individual does
not attempt to
carry out their
individual
responsibilities
•How are traits passed from one generation to the next?
Writing
Assessment
•What diseases are genetic?
Collaboration
•What are mutations?