PERSONAL GENOMICS

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AssignmentInstructions.docx

Instruction: Innovations in Biology and Technology

This assignment is an opportunity for students to dive more deeply into a topic they'd like to learn more about.  It can be very satisfying to gain an understanding about a topic that may be challenging!

Please review the example of Assignment 2 provided in the Content area. 

Summary of Instructions:

In this assignment students will be creating a presentation on innovations in biology and technology. students will be submitting it into their assignment folder as a video link of a narrated PowerPoint or Slides presentation, and a Word document of your narration (your “speaker’s notes) which will be reviewed for similarity by Turnitin. Instructions on how to complete this procedure can be found below.

This assignment addresses course outcomes 1-4: 

· recognize and explain how the scientific method is used to solve problems. 

· make observations and discriminate between scientific and pseudoscientific explanations. 

· weigh evidence and make decisions based on strengths and limitations of scientific knowledge and the scientific method. 

· use knowledge of biological principles, the scientific method, and appropriate technologies to ask relevant questions, develop hypotheses, design and conduct experiments, interpret results, and draw conclusions.

The final submission should include 3 items:

1. Power Point Presentation of Topic with 12 slides

2. Document with Speaker Notes (word document or pdf)

3. Link to YouTube video of Power Point with Narration or 

Below are detailed instructions on how to complete the assignment.

1. Select one of the five topics below. (Vaccines, Personal Genomics, CRISPR, Bioprinting, or Human Caused Global Climate Change)

· b) Personal Genomics. Services like  23andMe  and  Ancestry  have made it possible – even popular – for the average person to obtain in-depth information about their genome, including details like food allergies, drug sensitivities, and disease risks.  There are even add-on sites that will take this information and generate elaborate reports, such as Promethease.

· Describe how this data is obtained, and what it actually includes. Start your explanation with a basic description of DNA and how genes control our traits (the Central Dogma).

· Use information from the course readings, at least one service provider (e.g., 23&Me, Ancestry), and additional information resources.  

· What are the advantages and disadvantages of this easy, rapid, and affordable access to genomic data? 

·  What are the social implications, in terms of benefits and risks?  

· Is Genome Privacy (restricting access to an individual’s private genomic data) a potential issue, and if so, how?  

· If you, or someone you know, have had your own genome analyzed, discuss the thought process that led you (or them) to do so, and share how you felt when you found your results.

· If you haven't, discuss why or why you would not want to have this information.

2.  Find at least five articles related to one of the topics chosen from above (You can find assistance with searching for articles at the UMGC Library Subject Guides at http://libguides.umgc.edu/science )

3. Create a narrated PowerPoint presentation. The presentation should be between 4 – 7 minutes long (maximum).

Download the desktop version of PowerPoint on your computer if you have not already. This is needed to add narration. All UMGC students can download Office 365, including Power Point, for free:    

https://www.umgc.edu/help/help-topic.cfm?title=Office-365-How-do-I-download-Office-to-a-Windows-PC-Students&table=FAQ_IT__kav&action=getArticle    

**** Students need to submit a narrated PowerPoint presentation as a video and can use whatever format they are comfortable with. For example Zoom , Screencastify. , Vimeo, Loom, YouTube are all fine. (Instructions below). Students may also submit the MPEG4 file directly to the assignment folder, if not too large. 

4. Copy and Paste Speaker Notes onto a word or pdf document.  Please number the notes that correspond with each slide.  Speaker notes may be made ahead of time or may be copied and pasted from the automatically generated transcript on YouTube.

Download the desktop version of Power Point on your computer if you have not already. This is needed to add narration. All UMGC students can download Office 365, including Power Point, for free:  

https://www.umgc.edu/help/help-topic.cfm?title=Office-365-How-do-I-download-Office-to-a-Windows-PC-Students&table=FAQ_IT__kav&action=getArticle  

Below students will find a guide to create effective presentations: 

https://business.tutsplus.com/articles/powerpoint-guidelines-design-effective-presentations--cms-34595  

Narrated PowerPoint instructions

· 1. Write a script for your narration for each slide in a Word document. It is OK if you do not strictly follow the script when you narrate.  Students may instead download the automatically generated transcript from YouTube*.  Instructions are below.

· 2. Record the narration in Power Point. Go to Insert and click the Audio icon (to the right in the editing bar), choose Record Audio... from the drop-down menu. Click the red button to start your narration, then the blue button to stop. Check that your recording is OK. You can delete a recording and start over, and you can also do some minor editing by cutting off the start and/or end of the recording. Repeat for all the slides in your presentation. You may want to move the narration icon that appears in the middle of the slide to a corner.  

· The following video is very helpful:

· https://www.groovypost.com/howto/add-audio-microsoft-powerpoint-presentation/  

· 3. Save as MPEG4 File. Once your narrated Power Point presentation is completed, save it on your computer as a MPG4 file video by clicking File > Save > Choose MPEG4 format from drop down menu. Creating the video will take a few minutes. You can see a progress bar at the bottom.  

· *An alternative to writing the script prior to the narration is to follow this approach to download an automatically generated transcript from YouTube (Note: you need to allow extra time for the close captioning/transcript to be generated, remember to choose the language as “English”), see this video for more detail if you want to use this approach: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxb0X1fdbaI