Friday, July 04, 2008
End of June, the 35,000th pupil took part in the Mobile DNA lab known as Reading the tumour at Calvijn Christian Comprehensive School in Rotterdam. During the practical lesson, pupil Marij Hartog received a trophy on behalf of her school from Mr Colja Laane, director of the Netherlands Genomic Initiative (NGI).
This school year, the Mobile DNA labs visited 575 classrooms with just under 14,000 pupils participating in the project. The Mobile DNA labs were developed by five NGI Genomics Centres and five universities. The project consists of practical lessons on DNA research that travel around the country visiting classes in the upper forms of secondary schools, free of charge. The DNA labs allow pupils to get to grips with the latest technologies and issues in modern-day DNA and genetic research. Students from participating universities supervise the pupils during two-hour practical lessons. Teachers can introduce the practical lessons and discuss the issues afterwards on the basis of special teaching materials.
There are five different DNA-labs; Reading the tumour, Surfing your genes, Prenatal research in plants, Racing on toilet paper and Healthy or ill: Just a single wrong fold. Each DNA lab deals with a different aspect of modern DNA research. The labs demonstrate that knowledge of our genes and the molecules within a cell play an important role in areas that affect us all: food, health and the environment. The teaching materials focus in-depth on the social aspects of DNA research.
The 'Read the tumour' DNA lab sees pupils analyse DNA from cancer patients' cancerous tissue. Based on the DNA pattern, they advise a doctor on how to treat the tumour. The DNA labs will be travelling the country again next year. The DNA labs are almost fully booked until Christmas.
www.dnalabs.nl (in Dutch only)