Jackson Lab Receives NIH Grant to Enhance Genetics Instruction in High Schools

May 12, 2016 | The Jackson Laboratory has received a $1.2 million Science Education Partnership Award from the National Institutes of Health for Teaching the Genome Generation, The Jackson Laboratory’s teacher professional development program designed to enhance genetics instruction in high school classrooms.

Launched in 2014, Teaching the Genome Generation celebrates the genetic diversity in the human species, highlighting both infinite variations and complexity unique to each human being.  The funded program provides hands-on training for high school science teachers, helping them to bring greater understanding of the basics of genomics to their students.

The Jackson Laboratory will provide lab equipment, reagents, and supplies to enable teachers and their students to conduct genetics experiments, collect and analyze real data, and discuss the ethical complexities of personal access to genetic information. To date, the pilot program has trained 47 teachers and 1,200 students in New England. With the new grant, Teaching the Genome Generation is expected to reach up to 3,000 students each year between 2016 and 2021.

“As genetics and genomics take on a greater role in medicine,” says Charles Wray, Ph.D., director of Jackson Laboratory Courses and Conferences, “we need to prepare young people to be knowledgeable healthcare consumers, and to prepare them for careers in this growing field. We believe our ‘teach the teachers’ approach is the most efficient and effective way to improve the quality of genetics education.”

One-week courses are presented over the summer in two sessions at The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine in Farmington, Conn., the Laboratory’s headquarters campus in Bar Harbor, Maine. Both courses are fully subscribed for this year.

The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations and Jane’s Trust have also provided support for Teaching the Genome Generation.