See the Genes: Communicating Your Work, Findings and Ideas
Nanotechnology has enabled us to do and see things that were previously impossible.Copyright 2005 jurvetson, Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nanotechnology_book_cover.jpg
Through this concluding lesson and its associated activity, students experience one valuable and often overlooked skill of successful scientists and engineers—communicating your work and ideas. They explore the importance of scientific communication, including the basic, essential elements of communicating new information to the public and pitfalls to avoid. In the associated activity, student groups create posters depicting their solutions to the unit's challenge question—accurate, efficient methods for detecting cancer-causing genes using optical biosensors—which includes providing a specific example with relevant equations. Students are also individually assessed on their understanding of refraction via a short quiz. This lesson and its associated activity conclude the unit and serve as the culminating Go Public phase of the Legacy Cycle, providing unit review and summative assessment.
Many good, or even great, scientific discoveries and engineering inventions never became a part of everyday life because of a failure in presenting and disseminating their concepts. Hence, for any new product that solves a problem or need that exists in society, part of a successful engineering design process is the ability to effectively present tested solutions to others. For example, if an engineering team develops a device that reduces automobile emissions, the engineers must present that device concept to automobile companies in such a way that convinces them that the product is workable, reliable and cost-effective. In this lesson, students act as engineers in that they practice communicating ideas effectively, and in the associated activity, use a poster format to logically and cohesively present their solutions for gene detection in a way that people unfamiliar with the topic can be convinced of their value.
After this lesson, students should be able to:
- Explain at least three key components of presenting scientific information.
- Present a reliable, efficient method for detecting the presence of specific genes.
- Solve a real-world problem using the refraction concepts and equations.