From owner-celegans@net.bio.net Mon May 19 23:00:00 1997
Path: biosci!wellcome.ac.uk!i.muchamore
From: i.muchamore@wellcome.ac.uk (CommEd)
Newsgroups: bionet.celegans
Subject: c.elegans in High Schools?
Date: 20 May 1997 09:55:25 -0700
Organization: The Wellcome Trust
Lines: 36
Sender: daemon@net.bio.net
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <3382480C.4D76@wellcome.ac.uk>
NNTP-Posting-Host: net.bio.net

I am interested in hearing from anyone that has experience in using
c.elegans for teaching high school students. I also have an idea
described below for such teaching and am looking for feedback on how
practical it may really be from researchers. 

- What practical work if any did the students carry out? Transferring,
sexing, identifying mutants, setting up crosses, molecular biology - how
sucessful was this?
- 
A new strain?
I am trying to develop a 'fool - proof' practical to illustrate the
inheritance of simple recessive disorders. If this is to be sucessful in
schools they will need to easily maintain a 'heterozygote' stock.
Students would pick a het off a plate and self cross. The resulting
phenotype would be a classic 3:1 ratio. 

My basic understanding of the available mutants makes me wonder if a
temperature senstive Par mutant would achieve this stock. It would also
need to have another strong phenotype which students could identify
after the  self cross. 

I have not been able to identify something which meets these criteria on
the on-line version on ACeDB - so if anyone has some bright ideas they
would be warmly appreciatted.

I look forward to hearing from some creative scientists.

Ian Muchamore
i.muchamore@wellcome.ac.uk

Scientific Communication Officer
Wellcome Trust
210 Euston Road
London NW1 2BE
Tel 0171 611 8636
Fax 0171 611 8269

.