The DNA Investigators –probing the genes to tell more

Ms.C Ammal, a teacher at Navodaya Vidyalaya, Gajanur, Shimoga district, Karnataka has been teaching biology to class xi and xii for the past 15 years. She and her students of 11^th grade recently worked on a project on DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) fingerprinting. She talks about her passion and interests. “I love teaching .I find a sort of pleasure whenever I use technology in the class because along with my students, I too learn and thereby enrich myself.”

For the selected project on DNA fingerprinting ,she referred to the School Examination Board Guidelines and worked towards enabling the students to appreciate the complexity of living world and the role of Biology Vis-à-vis other disciplines and enabling the students to appreciate role of Biology in dispelling myths, misconceptions and misbelieves. The topic spreads out to three subjects’ science, social studies and biotechnology.

Ms.C Ammal introduced the lesson by posing the essential question “What makes people different? The initial response of the class was noted and based on the response further questions were triggered by the teacher to reach the topic of the day. The normally quiet and shy students were presenting their views frequently. She used the momentum to introduce the topic and narrate the biography of the Nobel laureates Watson & Crick -the discoverers of the double helix structure of the DNA molecule.

She tooled with technology and used multimedia for presentations on various sub topics. She worked on the beneficial method of collaboration and divided her students into small groups for umpteen structured activities which would lead to a deep understanding about the project.

She let the topic drive technology and realized that it appealed to the students as they worked more and more on it with interest. Facts mentioned on websites like a conventional fingerprint occurs only on the fingertips and can be altered by surgery, while a DNA fingerprint is the same for every tissue and organ of a person, it cannot be altered by any known treatment made relevant piece of information.

The students posed as ‘The DNA Investigators’, conducted a mock court scene and enacted the roles of a judge, lawyer, CBI officials and finger print expert. DNA fingerprinting has begun to influence decision-making in the courtroom these days. The teacher explains the relevance of the topic as various cases in the law court need DNA expertise. Training of judges in these novel techniques is being demanded. At least 10 innocent people have been freed from death row in the United States after DNA evidence from their cases was studied. The famous Sheppard case, O.J. Simpson trial are few much debated upon cases.

The groups of students were made to go through activities like sample crime scenario, fingerprinting activity worksheet etc available at the websites. The art of essay writing was applied and students got a chance to compile, coordinate and express their thoughts .The skill of communication was put to excellent use and the students were made to interact with the world renowned scientist Dr.C.N.R.RAO. The students were able to gauge how the scientists work and how they undertake the researches. The teacher adds that “All of the activities were aimed at developing a scientific temper among the students.”

To raise the bar in students, research was on the cards and the class together benefited from various sites like http://www.101science.com , http://www.biology.arizona.edu  and many more.

The technology supported project enabled differentiated learning, catering to different students’ abilities in a single classroom. The resource students got armed with the information from the internet and used it to match their assignment needs .The ease of understanding the matter brought out creativity and confidence and end result was composition of stories on DNA fingerprinting. The gifted students were able to discuss the advantages of this new technique in addition to other ways of crime detection. Reading was encouraged and students read newspapers and journals like Silicon Times.

Ms. C.Ammal is ‘Academic in charge’ of her school and she remarks that a lot can be achieved with time management, she prepares timetable with focus on implementation of technology in teaching learning process.
Students are encouraged and guided to undertake research based projects as she strongly feels that students can learn different skills and information at different depths of interest. Recently one of her student’s project on Tulsi plant, the Indian basil (Ocimum Sanctum) and study of its biopesticidal effect was selected for the National Talent Search Science Discovery Fair.

She muses, “I integrate technology to make the teaching learning process a joyful one.”

The students worked hard on the assignment and it has made them smarter about use of DNA fingerprinting and are able to follow legal cases with interest. They are also following the cases recorded on internet. They can start or join a blog as each has framed his own opinion based on facts.

This smart DNA Investigators group has taken baby steps towards success as ability to form opinion says a lot about ability to evaluate in life.

Ms. C. Ammal is the winner of ‘The Intel Awards’ in the teacher category. She was felicitated in an Awards ceremony held in Union Territory of Chandigarh on 4^th April, 2006. Her other technology supported projects like Genetic Engineering have won laurels too.