DNA is elementary: Promoting genetics literacy

描述（由申请人提供）：在科学教育合作伙伴奖的资助下，佐治亚州立大学（GSU）的科学家们创建了DNA是小学，这是一套学习模块，用于教授K到5年级的儿童经典遗传学和分子遗传学。在我们的模块中，我们利用年轻学习者的语言习得能力，将DNA作为指导手册，为每个独特的生物体提供具体的指导。我们现在建议在K-5阶段的学生成功的基础上，在非正式的科学环境中为家庭提供这些学习模块。在生物巴士（GSU的移动实验室项目）的赞助下，我们将与公共图书馆合作，为儿童及其家庭带来既能教育又能娱乐的活动。在夏季和选定的周末和学术假期，我们将在我们的合作机构提供当前系列的八个60分钟模块。完成前四个模块的家庭将有资格继续学习其余四个模块中的任何一个，以及目前正在开发的基于问题的新模块。最后，希望深入研究科学实验的家庭可以参加一个宏基因组学项目，该项目涉及从包含80,000多个克隆的土壤基因文库中鉴定新的细菌序列。很有可能，其中一些克隆将包含以前从未报道过的物种序列，从而为我们所服务的家庭带来真正的科学发现带来的兴奋。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): With funds provided by the Science Education Partnership Award, scientists at Georgia State University (GSU) have created DNA is Elementary, a set of learning modules developed to teach children in grades K through 5 about classical and molecular genetics. In our modules, we use young learners' facility with language acquisition to our advantage by representing DNA as an instructional manual with specific directions for making each unique organism. We now propose to build on our success with students in the K-5 arena by offering these learning modules to families in an informal science setting. Under the auspices of the Bio-Bus, GSU's mobile laboratory program, we shall partner with public libraries to bring activities to children and their families that both educate and entertain. During the summer and on selected weekends and academic holidays, we will present the current series of eight 60-minute modules at our partner institutions. Families who complete the first four modules will qualify to continue with any of the remaining four modules as well as with new problem-based modules currently under development. Finally, families who wish to become deeply immersed in scientific experimentation can take part in a metagenomics project involving the identification of novel bacterial sequences from a soil-derived gene library containing over 80,000 clones. The likelihood is high that some of these clones will contain sequences representing species that have never before been reported, thus bringing the excitement of authentic scientific discovery within reach of the families we serve.