Introducing DNA concepts to Swiss high school students based on a Brazilian educational game

Abstract

Subjects such as techniques for genetic diagnosis, cloning, sequencing, and gene therapy are now part of our lives and raise important questions about ethics, future medical diagnosis, and such. Students from different countries observe this explosion of biotechnological applications regardless of their social, academic, or cultural backgrounds, although they are not usually familiar with their theoretical genetic bases. To introduce some molecular biology concepts for high school students, we developed a new problem for the Brazilian board game "Discovering the cell" ("Célula Adentro©" in Portuguese), a pedagogic tool based on inquiry-, cooperative-, and problem-based learning. This problem (Case) is based on the forensic DNA, which represents an interesting theme for students, as it recurrently appears on newspapers and television series. In this work, we tested this game with secondary students and teachers from Switzerland. Our results indicate that the game "Discovering the cell" is well accepted by both students and teachers and may represent a good pedagogical approach to help teaching complex themes in molecular biology, even with students from different socioeconomical, cultural, and academic backgrounds.

CellEscape: o desenvolvimento de um escape room virtual para divulgação científica sobre aplicações de biotecnologia

“…Como projeto piloto, a 1ª fase do jogo, terá como tema a Genética Forense, inspirada pelo caso A Pérola do Nilo (Figura 1) do jogo Célula Adentro [Cardona et al 2007]. O objetivo do jogo é ser uma ferramenta de divulgação científica, tanto para o ensino formal quanto para o não formal.…”

Teaching the role of mutation in evolution by means of a board game

“…Using a reductionist model that mimics the role of random mutational processes in the emergence of biodiversity, this board game is a device for initiating and training students in the study of DNA and its relation to evolution. In spite of its widespread application, molecular biology is a research field hardly known by the majority of life sciences students, both in its theoretical bases and in its technical approaches (Cardona et al 2007), thus requiring new teaching strategies (Cardoso et al 2008).…”

Identity Crisis

“…Moreover, the DNA fingerprint activity can be modified to include higher-level concepts such as crossing over, electrophoresis, and polymorphism. The activity can easily be included in a unit on hereditary, reproduction, or meiosis (Cardona et al 2007). …”