Chapter 3 Cloning

Background | Classroom Applications | Internet Resources | Appendices

Classroom Applications

With the news in 1997 that a large mammal, Dolly the sheep, had been successfully cloned, we entered a new era, coming closer to the day when a human being will be cloned. This exciting, and frightening, scientific development is one that everyone should be informed about. This chapter presents basic information about cloning and examines its current and future uses.

Preliminary Lesson Planning

Materials:

• Prepare enough copies of the student handouts in Appendix B (optional), Appendix D, Appendix E, Appendix F, and Appendix G for each student in the class.
  
  
• If available, bring relevant visuals to assist with student input, for example, a picture of Dolly the sheep or other animals that have been cloned, or pictures of endangered animal species. Such photos can be found at the following Web sites:
  
  
  • Dolly and her surrogate mother http://www2.ri.bbsrc.ac.uk/library/press/dolly.jpg
    
    
  • Endangered/Extinct Animals (photos and descriptions of more than 100 animal species) http://www.nature.ca/notebooks/english/enexpg.htm
    
    
  • The five cloned piglets in Virginia http://ens.lycos.com/ens/mar2000/2000L-03-14-02.html

• For the Cool Down Activity, bring enough overhead transparencies or large sheets of paper and pens for each group in the class.

Student Grouping:

• Decide on procedures for pairing or grouping students for each activity (see suggestions below). Groups should have no more than six participants.
  
  
• For most activities, you should group students heterogeneously—either by language proficiency level or, for those activities where language is less of an issue, by expertise (that is, how much group members know about the topic). For some activities, you may wish to group randomly. In classes where students have varied first languages, it is important to put students from different backgrounds into each group.

Vocabulary:

• Before teaching the lesson, preview the glossary items and select upon those items that need to be pre taught (those that are absolutely essential for introducing and understanding the topic). These will probably include a review of word families, for example, to clone, a clone, cloning; to replicate, replication, replicated. See Appendix B for Sample Student Handout 1.

Warm Up Activity (approximately 15 minutes)

Purpose:

• To encourage students to think about the implications of cloning
  
  
• To provide a context in which students can draw on their own background knowledge

Procedures:

1. Write the word “extinction” on the blackboard. Ask students to explain the meaning of this word and to comment on why extinction of certain species is a concern today. Have them brainstorm species that are in danger of extinction.
   
   
2. Instruct students that you are going to read aloud the story of Noah’s Ark, a story about the preservation of animal species (see Appendix C). Tell them to answer the following question: “How did Noah save the animals of the world?”
   
   
3. Read the story aloud. Ask students if they have any questions about vocabulary and content. If necessary, read the story aloud a second time.
   
   
4. Elicit student responses to the question.
   
   
5. Ask them to think of and tell stories from other cultures or religions that are similar to the story of Noah’s Ark.
   
   
6. Ask them to give modern examples of how species are being preserved.

Transition from Warm Up to Activities

Tell students that they are going to learn about a scientific procedure called cloning that may allow us to not only preserve species but also to improve their genetic makeup.

Activity 1 (approximately 60 minutes) See endnote

Purpose:

• To provide students with key information about cloning
  
  
• To activate their note-taking, speaking, and listening skills
  
  
• To have students work cooperatively to increase their knowledge of the topic

Procedures:

1. Divide the class into six “expert” groups. The total number of members in each group will depend on the number of students in the class. Assign each group a letter designation (A–F). With a large class, you can create more than one group for each letter.
   
   
2. Give each group a copy of Handout 2 (see Appendix D) that corresponds to its letter designation. Tell them to do the following:
   
   a. Have one person in your group read the information about cloning aloud to the rest of the group. Take notes on important information.
   b. Agree as a group on which piece of information was important. Add any additional information to your notes.
   
   
3. Regroup the class into groups that contain six students, one from each of the previous “expert” groups. If the total number of students in the class is not divisible by six, distribute the remaining students evenly among the new groups.
   
   
4. Distribute copies of Handout 3 for Activity 1 (see Appendix E).
   
   
5. Have students work together to answer the questions.
   
   
6. Elicit responses from the groups and write them on the blackboard (see Appendix E for sample answers). Help resolve any differences of opinion by asking the expert groups to reread their notes.

Activity 2 (approximately 25–30 minutes)

Purpose:

• To acquaint students with how cloning is being used
  
  
• To have them examine the value of recent scientific research and express their personal opinions on this topic
  
  
• To practice language and skills associated with expressing and defending an opinion

Procedures:

1. Divide the class into groups of from two to five students. The total number of groups will depend on the number of students in the class.
   
   
2. Give students a copy of Handout 4 (see Appendix F) and ask them to do the following (write instructions on the blackboard if necessary):
   
   a. Work as a group to decide which of the scenarios shows the most beneficial use of cloning. Be prepared to defend your answer.
   b. Then, decide as a group which of the scenarios shows the least beneficial use of cloning. Again, be prepared to defend your choice.
   
   
3. Have each group explain its decisions to the rest of the class.
   
   
4. Encourage the rest of the class to ask questions and challenge the group’s choices (for sample phrases for agreeing and disagreeing see Chapter 2, Appendix D).

Activity 3 (approximately 30–40 minutes) See endnote

Purpose:

• To give students an opportunity to practice their writing skills
  
  
• To provide a forum for students to voice their personal opinions about the various uses of cloning

Procedures:

1. Distribute Handout 5 (see Appendix G) to all students in the class.
   
   
2. Explain that the handout contains comments about cloning written on the World Wide Web by five different individuals.
   
   
3. Ask students to read all five comments.
   
   
4. As a whole class activity, have students summarize the main point of each comment.
   
   
5. Ask students to select one of the five comments that they wish to react to in writing. Allow 10 minutes for them to write their responses.
   
   
6. Group students according to the Web comment they wrote about and have them read their responses to each other.
   
   
7. Ask for volunteers to read their responses aloud to the whole class.

Cool Down Activity (approximately 15 minutes)

Purpose:

• To help students summarize the new information they have learned and review key concepts
  
  
• To give students an opportunity to use new vocabulary in a meaningful context

Procedures:

1. Write the word “cloning” on the blackboard and circle it. Draw lines coming out of the circle like spokes on a wheel (see Appendix H for sample blackboard layout).
   
   
2. Explain to the class that they will create a “word wheel” as they brainstorm and review what they have learned about cloning in this lesson.
   
   
3. Divide students into groups of not more than six members each. The total number of groups will depend on the number of students in the class.
   
   
4. Distribute an overhead transparency (or large piece of paper) and a pen to each group and have them copy the word wheel from the board onto their transparency or paper.
   
   
5. Tell each group to think of the kinds of information they have learned about cloning and write these on each spoke of the word wheel. For example, students might write “definition of cloning,” “benefits of cloning,” “uses of cloning,” etc.
   
   
6. Explain how they can expand their word wheel by drawing additional spokes from the words they have added. For example, they could draw three additional spokes for “benefits of cloning” and label these “identical copies of genetic information,” “prevention of disease,” “better crops,” etc.
   
   
7. Have each group display and present its word wheel.

Possible Extensions to Lesson

1. For the Warm Up Activity, divide the class in groups of from three to six students. The number of groups will depend on the total number of students. Have each group choose one near-extinct species that they would preserve and explain how they would preserve it. (A good resource for photos and brief information about endangered and extinct species is “The Canadian Museum of Nature online”: http://www.nature.ca/notebooks/english/enexpg.htm).
   
   
2. Ask students to find articles in newspapers or magazines or search the Internet to find information about efforts to preserve endangered species of plants or animals. See the Internet resources in this chapter for possible sources.
   
   
3. To get students more actively involved in Activity 1, this could be done as a competition to see which group can answer the questions most quickly and accurately.
   
   
4. For Activity 1, have each group of students devise one additional frequently asked question about cloning. For homework, each group could research the answer to its question and summarize the information in one paragraph. The teacher could compile the new questions and answers, and distribute them or post them on a class Web site.
   
   
5. For Activity 2, in addition to deciding the most and least beneficial uses of cloning, students can also be asked to rank all of the uses from most to least beneficial.
   
   
6. For Activity 2, the teacher could assign one use of cloning to each group and have the groups present the benefits and disadvantages of using cloning in this way.
   
   
7. For Activity 3, instead of having students respond in writing to the Web postings, have students, working in pairs, take on the identity of the writer and role play the conversation between the two parties.

Refer to the Web sites listed in the next section of this chapter for more information and lesson planning ideas.

Endnotes

1. The cloning FAQ in Activity 1 are based on the Cloning Special Report on the NewScientist Web site http://www.newscientists.com.

2. The Web postings in Activity 3 are based on the Bioethics Forum on the NewScientist Web site http://www.newscientists.com.

 

 

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