 
|
Classroom Resources | Next Activity
Episode Four: Creators of the Future
Activity 1: Should we Clone a Wooly Mammoth?
Grades 6-12
Objectives:
- Students will understand the mechanics of cloning.
- Students will research the ethical, legal, and social issues that
arise from cloning research.
- Students will develop and debate "Guidelines for Cloning Research"
for a possible United Nations Resolution.
Ties to Broadcast and Web Sites:
- Intimate Strangers: Creators of the Future
"Microbe vs. Microbe" segment (approximately 28:44 to 40:09)
- Learning
Tools For Understanding Genetics and Genetic Research
A list of topics for learning about genetics and genetic research.
- Create
Your Own Chocolate Cow
Just for fun, using the same cloning technique that created Dolly the
sheep, see what happens when you cross a cocoa bean with a cow.
- DNA: From the Beginning
Includes an interactive multimedia primer to take the user from the
basics of heredity through methods of DNA analysis.
- Genetic Engineering
and Cloning
Thinkquest website with tutorials on different cloning techniques. Raises
ethical issues related to cloning, and has online games that test knowledge
about cloning.
Procedure for Classroom Activity:
- Ask students how many of them believe that Jurassic Park could be
possible in the future? Tell them that recent news reports show that
scientists have recovered DNA sequences from Alaskan and Siberian mammoths
which date from the last ice age, which ended 10,000 years ago. Inform
them that in this activity, the students will be asked to consider the
ethics of cloning new animals from this ancient DNA as well as other
possible cloning experiments.
- Begin by researching DNA, and the theory and methods of cloning. Use
the simplified cartoon demonstration at http://www.sun-sentinel.com/graphics/science/clone.htm
to see the cloning technique used for cloning Dolly the sheep.
- Show the segment "Microbe vs. Microbe" from Intimate
Strangers: Creators of the Future about using cloning techniques
to genetically alter the cassava plant in Zimbabwe. Discuss the following
questions: What are the advantages and disadvantages about this research?
Why is the Zimbabwe government being cautious about allowing the testing
of these new plants? Do you think that this kind of research is like
"playing God?" Why or why not?
- Ask students to research other scientific, political and ethical concerns
about cloning organisms in the websites listed above.
- Divide the students into groups to do further research and prepare
reasons for what they see as the advantages and disadvantages of cloning.
Develop a list of questions or concerns that arise about the scientific,
political, and ethical concerns of cloning. What do students think is
the difference between cloning sheep, ancient dinosaurs, virus-resistant
cassava plants, and human beings? What efforts do they think should
be made by an international organization such as the United Nations
to regulate this new kind of research?
- Ask each group to prepare a resolution, Guidelines for Cloning, to
present to a fictitious United Nations Committee on Scientific Research.
Present these resolutions for debate in the classroom and develop a
consensus for a final resolution.
- Share the final resolution on-line for further discussion .
Classroom Resources | Next Activity
|
 |
