Human Genome Project Ideas???

[Guest DMK]

Hey you guys, I'm new here and was wondering if you might be able to help me out with a few suggestions.

 

At the school I attend they assign projects that span the entire school year and are to be presented during the final weeks of our second semester. The projects can be on anything you choose - research, problem solving, building things, etc., basically anything that interests you. You are expected to give a 15 minute presentation at the end of the year and have one final "product" to show for your work. Many kids choose to do an in-depth Power Point or write novellas (well, they call them papers but when they get past the 70 page mark I feel inclined to call them something different). I wanted to do something different this year.

 

You see, my project is on the Human Genome Project and basically covers the history, the focus points, and the impact it is expected to have on the future of science. For my final product I would like to do something out of the ordinary but I am without any ideas...

 

So far dressing up as DNA or a double-helix has been suggested, but I was wondering if anyone out there, who is perhaps a bit more creative than I, has any better ideas?

 

All feedback is greatly appreciated!!! Thanks in advance!

[Ryoken]

Heh, dressing up like that would surely lighten things up!

 

First of all, what age group is this presentation for?

 

And I can't help but wonder if you your presentation will be taking place within the month of June, this being the end of the school year, not leaving excess time for completion of any suggestions made here. But better late than never.

 

Perhaps making a handout containing the entire human genome sequence... just to give a sense of scale. And then calculating how much mass % of an average redwood tree the amout of paper in one handout would be.

[Sayonara]

I've seen the genome printed on A4.

 

It's a lot of paper.

[Guest DMK]

Alright, you got me. I've got a little problem with procrastination, but it's not as bad as it seems.

 

The research is done, the power point that will aid with my presentation is ready to go, my speech just has a few fine points left to be worked out... it's just the product I'm really left with. I originally intended just to make a large poster (on a 3-fold "science fair" board) that highlighted events in the HGP timeline, but I figured that would more than a little boring and way too predictable.

 

But thanks for the paper handout idea, I'm sure it would be a great way to get people to understand just how massive this project is. The only problem is that from estimates I've read, it would take roughly 1,200,000 pages to represent the entire genome.(That's assuming you can fit 3000 characters per page and that this data is still current...) I'm not sure just how well that would go over lol

 

And it will be presented to a group of high schoolers around 15-16 years old, with 3-4 teachers watching and grading presentations.

 

Thanks for the suggestions though!!

[atinymonkey]

Be sure to mention the US governments reclassification of the description of the word 'complete' to allow the US genome project to be classed as 'complete' when it was only 86% finished.

 

All done to allow Pharmaceutical companies to start identifying the genes for diseases such as cancer, for lucrative dividends in the US. The actual project is still only at 99% and stalled there. Plus the UK had the genome mapped further than the US, but didn't try lobbying the government to reclassify the word 'complete'.

 

 

Sure I'm bitter, but it's all I have left.