Genetics Project: Successes

Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

The genetics project turned out very well for many students. Here are some of my thoughts on the successes of the project:

1. Heightened awareness and empathy from developing their presentations
Many students were touched deeply by the stories that they read and moved to go beyond the requirements of the project. One student described reading post after post about one family's journey until he had read their entire blog, over 80 posts spanning 3 years. Another student, in her reflection wrote,

"I thought that this activity was one of the most touching assignments I’ve completed in my 4 yrs of high school. Most projects seem to drill information into a student’s head, but this one gave me a new outlook on life. I’ve known people with non-serious genetic differences, though these differences all had environmental factors as well; I’ve volunteered at Special Olympics, but neither of these things helped me understand how life was for these individuals and their families. This is seriously the only project that I researched more on the subject than I had to. Thank you for assigning this."

2. Heightened awareness and empathy from watching presentations
One of the things that moved me the most was that four students based presentation on their own experiences with friends or family members who had specific genetic differences including Down syndrome, SMA type I (spinal muscular atrophy), and Prader-Willi syndrome. One student also covered Asperger's syndrome which, although the genetic mechanism has not been elucidated and is likely to be complex and only partially responsible for developing the disease, was of such passionate importance to the student who asked to choose it that I felt everyone would be best served by allowing her to proceed. The students handled themsevles with great respect during these presentations, listening in silence and with great attentiveness, and providing sincere and thoughtful feedback. Even presentations which were not based on personal experience were respectful, and for the most part, quite moving.

3. A chance for creativity and freedom of format
My IB students have almost all of their assessment based on the types of questions that IB will give them - data-based analyses, topical essays, lab design and reports, etc. While they certainly need these skills and lots of practice, it is rather limited in allowing them to express their love of the subject. This project was a welcome difference to us all. This time the students used a variety of formats, including blog posts, movies, narrated slideshows, and narrated powerpoints. Many students who are not strong public speakers, especially EAL students, chose the recorded narration format, while some others spoke over powerpoint presentations and pasted their script into the notes. In addition to allowing students creativity, and although the products were not perfect, the students definitely practiced and improved their skills.

Genetics Project: Things to Improve

Overall, I was very happy with how the students' genetics projects turned out. Some of them completed it as just another assignment, and some, although their reflections are very positive, seem to be writing what they think I'm looking for.

However, I would say that a good number of students were truly moved by this project, truly stretched their minds and hearts, and learned a great deal about a variety of subjects from presentation formats to the human condition.

The things I would to differently required a "run-through" to see what sort of issues would arise. This post will look at some of the issues I ran into that I would improve for the next group of students:

1. Overuse of unmodified youtube or other online footage.
Of course the best way to show a person's story is to use his/her own words. However, the project was not to find three video clips and play them unmodified for the class within a ppt framework.
What I wanted, and what many students did, was to use this rich video resource to extract poignant or particularly expressive clips or images, use voice over, etc. to embed into a presentation format to create what was clearly the student's own product. However, a few students had insufficient modifications and basically created only the "background" of the presentation, and provided little of their own analysis about the challenges that people with genetic differences and their loved ones face as well as ways of overcoming these challenges. They left that to be covered by the clips they chose, and in most cases relied on implicit understanding of these issues.
Next time, I will include the requirment that the majority of the presentation must be the student's own discussion, and that all video used must include an explicit evaluation (why it is so meaningful, what precisely it shows about challenges and/or accomplishments, etc.) from the presenters.

2. Citations and Copyright Issues
Although students were directed to keep a log of all the sites they visited and to use proper citations, this aspect of the project was not explained clearly enough to them. Some students included only a "sites visited" page without properly documenting which images and videos came from where.
Further, although they are for educational use which is acceptable in Thailand, the students seem to think that youtube videos are public domain which they are not. This is something that I will discuss with my students this year, and improve for next time. Specifically, I will ask them to contact the user who posted the video they want to use and ask permission. This will, I think, also be a good way to make contact with individuals personally affected by genetic differences.

3. Length of presentation.
I wanted to leave the presentation format as open as possible so when students asked me how long the presentations needed to be I responded, "As long as it takes to meet the requirements in the rubric." The result was that some presentations were almost 30 minutes, which is quite a bit longer than what I had imagined - the examples I showed them were 5 and 8 minutes respectively.
I will put an upper limit on presentation length next time, between 10-15 minutes.

Although there is much to improve in these projects, the value of this project has been immense.