Wonderwise

Genetic Counselor Box
Genetic Counselor

Genetic counselors investigate diseases that children inherit from their parents and grandparents. Follow genetic counselor Cathy Burson, Ph.D., as she treats a little boy who is one of three children in the U.S. receiving an experimental treatment for Pompe disease, a rare genetic disorder. Take a field trip to a laboratory and see chromosomes under a microscope. Visit a gradeschool where Cathy teaches children about genetic problems. Learn about diseases that run in families and how genetic counselors can help. CD-ROM features: (videos, geography section, glossary, interactive activities, Web and library resources)

Your students will develop an understanding of:

• Meet Cathy and find out how she grew up exploring the outdoors and studying science and math. Learn new vocabulary words as you watch her team up with other medical professionals to help families with inherited diseases.
• Take a journey into the human body and see cells, chromosomes, DNA, RNA, amino acids, and proteins. See a video of how an egg is fertilized by a sperm, combining DNA.
• Use the computer mouse to focus a microscope and examine slides of cells from the cheek, muscle, blood, brain, egg and sperm. Pop-up text explains the function of the cell as you view it on the slide.
• Click on different parts of a boy’s and girl’s body to discover the function of different cells.
• Hands-on projects from theGenetic Counselor Activity Book:
• Take a genetic survey about inherited traits such as eye and hair color.
• Track different combinations of genes to create the face of a “baby".
• Build a gene model and learn how DNA copies itself.
• Read a chromosome chart and compare a baby’s chromosomes to the chart.

Check out the supply list for each activity.


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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 9909496.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and
do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).