This clip has had me wondering:
The video shows kids dancing on a college campus. They’re wearing tee shirts in any of four colors (representing nucleotides?) and lining up and zip-splitting in a semi-coordinated fashion, and having fun.
That’s fine, but let’s face facts: the exercise has little to do with DNA or understanding genetics at a meaningful level. From the Times Learning Network:
The idea was to connect science with the arts and to facilitate student understanding of the role genetic information plays in our lives. It also works on a metaphorical level, as an allegory for the student-faculty relationship and the college experience.
My initial reaction was puzzlement, then concern about higher education in the U.S. mixed with fear for the next generation of scientists: Where are the nucleosomes? Is the bicyclist like a helicase? What happens if there’s a double-strand break? All these things we should know.
Am I being too harsh?
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connections…