1,500 of you have had the first, IVF, debate kit and you’ve been giving us great feedback on them. We are now gearing up to produce the second kit and we’d like your help choosing the topic, because who better than teachers to tell us what teachers want?
The suggested topics so far are:-
- Stem cells
- Creationism
- Homeopathy
- MMR
- Cannabis (legalisation and/or medical use)
Have you got any other bright ideas? Topics must be biomedical as we are being funded by the lovely Wellcome Trust. Are there topics you’d really like debating resources on but can’t find anything suitable? Then let us know in the comments section! We’ll collect suggestions over the next week or so, and then let everybody vote on the shortlist.
Timetable:-
3rd – 11th Sept
Gathering suggestions
14th Sept
Put up topic shortlist for voting
21st Sept
Topic chosen
21st Sept-19th Oct
Researching, developing, testing and producing kit number 2
19th Oct
Posting out next kit
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I’ve had a few people email me to suggest topics that are outside Wellcome’s scope. Sorry, they do have be biomedical!
This includes Dan Hannard’s suggestion of a debate on limestone quarrying – even though I agree that the chemistry of calcium is a topic that could do with livening up:-)
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Another suggestion has been animal testing. I’m particularly keen on this because the animal testing scientists in the pilot really got a hard time from students. It would be great to get kids thinking about all sides of this a bit more before they talk to the scientists.
However, a couple of teachers have said there are already lots of resources on animal testing. Have you got any favourites you would recommend?
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Saviour siblings or designer babies? My sister’s Kepper has evoked a lot of interest in the area already so it would be good to have some resources for this
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Agree with ‘S’ about the designer baby debate as it would tie in nicely with the B1 topic and gene therapy discussions. Also like the suggestion of Stem Cells.
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GM crops
Cloning
Are antibactierial cleaners causing a rise in resistant bacteria? (Are we too clean?)
With animal testing, a link to the Banting and Best experiement would be good as we find this very difficult to find resouces for. -
I’d second the antibacterial cleansers and maybe antibiotics in the light of Swine flu as well, very topical and bound to get more so!
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Sophia
Here are a few suggestions:
Cloning mammals
designer babies
Genetically modified organisms
With regards
Devinder
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Cannabis would be a good one – I would love to use this as a starting point for the OCR gateway coursework
Cloning would be good – an interesting topic that creates a lot of varied opinions.Liz
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Should we use animal organs to save critically ill people who need transplants.
Pigs are the animals in question. My year nines found this question fascinaing and a lot decided to use this for coursework. -
Something to do with funding for drugs, eg should cash be put towards AIDS / malaria / TB, or obesity / Alzheimers which will make more cash for companies
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Animal organ transplants was a major discussion point for OCR coursework. My year 10’s hated the idea of a pigs kidney in their body. Stem cell use, ideally embryonic stem cells would be a great discussion area to.
cheers =-) -
Should donors get paid to donate organs such as kidneys or for egg, blood, sperm donation as they do in USA.
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How about something about the current debate about holding genetic information on people who have been arrested but not found guilty as occurs in England but not Scotland for instance. This could be widened out into the idea of who owns genetic information. I can remember reading in a newspaper ages ago about the isolated Italian town that made a deal with a biomedical company to investigate some genetic quirk in the population and benefit from it, in exchang for healthcare for the town’s population. Maybe that sort of thing too.
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Some good suggestions mentioned already:
Xenotransplantation
Antibiotic use
Genetic screening and designer babies
Stem cells
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Stem cells would be a good one to include.
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GM foods
DNA databases
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human evolution
GM crops – effect on humans -
I would really appreciate a debate pack on the use of cannabis, as this would provide a discussion stimulus prior to tackling the OCR Gateway coursework activity.
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Wow, great suggestions everyone. Thank you!
So many of these would make great debate topics – I love designer babies, xenotransplantation, drugs funding, genetic databases… In fact I want to do all of them! Glad it’s you lot having to choose and not me:-)
Lots of you are mentioning stem cells though. I suspect that may be the winning topic when we put it to the vote…
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Other suggestions I’ve had by email:-
organ donation (opt in or opt out)
low calorie diets -
The GM debate. Emphasising pros and cons of GM foods
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I believe the topic of testing for new drugs and the problems the medical profession have to face would be a good debate topic. It is also part of the AQA GCSE specification
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i agree that something on drug testing ( clinical trials) and/or animal experimentation would be both topical and useful. genetic databases also a good idea….
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here are my suggestions which are linked i guess:
Peer Review and how good a scientific information source is – this could link to:
GM foods / GM in general
Cloning
Synthetic Biology
Use of animals / humans in testing
Antibiotic resistance / use
Bioweapons research vs drug & immunity research
Genomics – use of genes to predict your life / diseases etc
Hope that these are useful and let me know if you want more info on what i mean
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Genetic engineering.
Is it ok to choose how your baby looks?
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limitations of scientific knowldge(part of EXCEL ND SCIENCE)
Questions science has or is currently addressing
Questions science cannot yet address
Questions science that science will never be able to address
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