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Genetics resources for middle school?

598 views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  Treece 
#1 ·
12yo DS and I just had a looooooooong conversation about genetics... he had tons of questions and was receptive to all the info I was trying to pass on to him. Everything from developing cat breeds to where do diseases come from, dominant and recessive genes, XXY and other chromosome pair defects, genetic mutations vs environmentally caused birth defects (eg spina bifida or thalidomide), DNA strands unzipping to build new copies and the T-A protein pairs (I think T goes with A but can't remember C's partner...), where did sexual reproduction come from in the first place (ie, how did the first male/female animals know what they had to do... heh...) So some very basic stuff that he didn't know about yet, as well as some very technical stuff, and even some stuff that we don't know the answer to yet (eg, he has Asperger's and ADHD so he was asking if it had a genetic or an environmental cause!)

Anyway, he was SO keen, and I remember that I was around his age when we did genetics in school and I really started to "get" it. I wonder if there's a good resource out there to go further for him, stimulate his curiosity and answer his questions better than I could. It could be some "curriculum" or it could be a book or even a website... it doesn't have to be aimed at a 12yo, since he was interested in the technical stuff too, but it shouldn't assume college-level biology and chemistry backgrounds either. Hm, yeah, now that I think about it, we did genetics in jr high about chromosome pairs and dominant/recessive etc, but the protein pairs and DNA sequences was grade 12 biology... heh...

Really though, any kind of resource for any aspect of genetics would be appreciated. :)
 
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#3 ·
I got a really great videos from HHMI. They're all free, some on genetics, evolution, s@x, ect. I thought they were great. They even have the lecturer, some where on Nova. Anyway, here is the link: http://www.hhmi.org/catalog/main?action=home Oh, they even send their magazine to my home!! My 3 yo loves looking at the pics b/c they are so colorful. Great resource!!

Forgot to add, in the search area, just select DVD and click search, it brings up 14.
 
#5 ·
Wow, Treece, thanks for the HHMI info! Free DVD's -- even to Canada. Can't beat that! I ordered 4 of them.

Enjoying perusing all the other sites too. Thanks everyone!
 
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