Unit Plan 5: Bioethics
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Unit Plan 5: Bioethics Each unit is complete with the corresponding slides found in the main Genetic Engineering PowerPoint. Teachers have the liberty to cover the material on an as-needed basis based on alignment with class curriculum. Estimated Time Materials 3 – 4 class periods PowerPoint, printable worksheets of choice from the following lesson plan Objectives 1. Distinguish between the pros and cons of vaccine producing food (Analyze) 2. Define bioethics and relate the field of study to vaccine producing food (Remember) 3. Explain why lab safety is important in genetic engineering (Understand) 4. Sketch the three spheres of sustainability and define each part (Apply) 5. List the three components of agricultural ethics and summarize each part (Remember) 6. Develop an argument for GM crops and against GM crops (Evaluate) 7. Give an example of a concern related to the following categories: ecologic, economic (Understand) Standards and strands Science Biology • Standard 4, Objective 2, Part d: Analyze bioethical issues and consider the role of science in determining public policy Agricultural Science 1 • Strand 3, Standard 3, Describe benefits and risks associates with biotechnology. • Strand 3, Standard 6, Research the scope of the food science industry and the world food supply. Agricultural Science 2 • Strand 3, Standard 2, Discuss ethical, legal, social, and cultural issues in modern biotechnology. Agricultural Science 3 • Strand 5, Standard 2, Identify and discuss ethical issues with applications of genetic engineering. Assessment Options 1. Choose any of the included activities or projects as assessments. Vocabulary Bioethics, sustainability Objectives Curriculum and Instruction: Content Teaching Method 1. Distinguish Vaccine Producing Food Do you think this is a good idea? Why or why not? Create a between the • Foods can be genetically engineered to contain vaccines, pros and cons list to share with the class! pros and cons also known as “edible vaccines”, which could be easier to of vaccine deliver vaccines to children. producing food. 2. Define What are Bioethics? Show students the following comic and discuss the bioethics and definition. relate the The origin of the term is in the article “Bioethics, the Science of field of study Survival” where Van Rensselaer Potter defines the term as: to vaccine producing “A science of survival must be more than science alone, and I food. therefore propose the term ‘bioethics’ in order to emphasize the two most important ingredients in achieving the new wisdom that is so desperately needed: biological knowledge and human values.” Biology + ethics = bioethics https://muse.jhu.edu/article/405198/pdf 3. Explain why Safety and Ethics POSSIBLE ACTIVITIES lab safety is • Because of the dangers associated with genetic • Why Scientists Can Never Prove That Biotech important in engineering, laboratory procedures such as researcher Crops are Safe genetic protection from infection and keeping all microbes in the o http://agbiosafety.unl.edu/science.shtml engineering. lab. • Risk as Science • Genetic crippling is when microbe strains used in o http://agbiosafety.unl.edu/riskasscience.s experiments involving recombinant DNA are unable to html survive outside the lab, but dangerous experiments can be • Risk as Perception banned. o http://agbiosafety.unl.edu/perception.sht Ethical Questions ml • Should humans have the ability to create new organisms • The Risk Assessment Paradigm or alter an existing organism’s genes? o http://agbiosafety.unl.edu/paradigm.shtm • Is it unethical, or has it been done through artificial l selection for centuries? (Pearson Education, 2016) 4. Sketch the Have students draw the following diagram on notebook three spheres paper or their interactive notebook, writing the definition of in each circle. sustainability and define each part. Three spheres of sustainability – PennState Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering - https://www.e- education.psu.edu/eme807/node/575 5. List the three “Agricultural ethics is like a three-legged milking stool. One Have students draw the following diagram on notebook components appendage rests in health, another in environment, and the third paper or their interactive notebook, writing the definition of agricultural is planted firmly in the social, cultural and historical meanings of in each leg of the milk stool. ethics and rural life. Medically-based dietary advice may be grounded in a summarize concern for human health, but it has the potential for both cultural each part. and environmental reverberations. Agricultural and food issues have a natural place in the bioethics spectrum, even when bioethics is conceived narrowly in terms of human health. But a complete understanding of these issues will require insight from all three legs of the agricultural ethics stool.” -Paul B. Thompson, Michigan State University Agricultural ethics stool: health, environment, (social/cultural/historical) http://www.bioethics.msu.edu/images/stories/file/MhR/mhr_25_ 3.pdf Additional CAST Paper http://www.cast- science.org/download.cfm?PublicationID=2899&File=f0305d2ffd0 2e961471b33646e406f494718 Understand that the following benefits and concerns do not reflect the opinion of Utah State University. The following information reflects what supporters and opponents are propagating. 6. Develop an Benefits/Supporters ACTIVITY/ASSESSMENT OPTIONS argument for • Environmental, health, Economic, world problem solving GMO crops • Supporters say the technology will be better for the Jigsaw activity for multiple perspectives: environmentalist, and against environment chemical company, grain farm families, GMO crops. • Fewer chemicals are used with herbicide resistance compared to conventional crops Examples of perspectives - • herbicide resistant crops, like roundup ready corn or http://www.accessexcellence.org/LC/SER/BE/nicotine.html soybeans • Insect resistant crops, like bt corn and bt cotton Structured Academic Controversy: What Should We Do? • Supporters say there are health benefits Activity • higher quality and nutritional value, shelf life longer, sugar https://www.nwabr.org/sites/default/files/StructuredAcad beets with lower calories, lower saturated fat oils, emicControversy.pdf benefitting world’s poor, added vitamins and minerals, golden rice, mass producing substances like Student Created Survey on Genetically Engineered Crop pharmaceuticals Safety Issues http://agbiosafety.unl.edu/survey.shtml • Supporters say farmers will benefit • Avoiding losses, single broad-spectrum herbicide reducing Position Paper on the Safety of Genetically Engineered land degradation, losses reduced from sudden frosts, GM Food crop yields increasing 5 to 8 percent (corn, cotton, http://agbiosafety.unl.edu/position.shtml soybeans) • Supporters say that GM Seeds will aid in feeding the growing world population 7. Give an Concerns INTERACTIVE SOURCES example of a 1. Ecological, health, genetic, contamination, patent, concern geopolitical Food security index – sponsored by Dupont related to the https://foodsecurityindex.eiu.com following a. Opponents say that wildlife could be harmed by categories: GM crops, pesticide resistant ‘Superbugs’ and ecologic, ‘Superweeds’ (Refugee area is now needed for Bt economic crops to slow resistant insect development. Bt is a soil bacterium that organic growers spray on crops as a pesticide, and resistant insects would nullify this practice. b. Super weeds are herbicide resistant due to uncontrollable cross pollination by wind, birds, insects. c. “Natural” species competition, creating a loss of diversity. d. Non-target species includes harming birds, non pest insects, and animals. Specifically, transgenic Bt corn harming monarch butterfly, known through a Cornell University study. e. Opponents say that GM foods could cause health problems f. Animal experiments include: the liver, heart, and brain being smaller, with a reduced immune system, in rats fed potatoes with GMO protein. (reword). Antibiotic gut resistance found in mice were the trans-genes were not degraded in digestion. g. Allergies due to proteins, 90% of food allergies are due to proteins. For example, though, the brazil nut protein in soybean was never on the market. h. Lack of control over location of insertion, which could disrupt other genes. The role of the gene may be unknown, or have different functions based on the organism. For example, the genet in rats for sense of smell, in Zebra finches for song learning, and humans for Parkinson’s disease are the same gene. i. Concerns with cross pollination and segregation. Because corn is the most highly used biopharma crop, there are concerns with cross-pollination with plants engineered to contain human antibodies, like contraceptive corn (epicyte gene) and herpes-fighting antibody (human gene). Proposing that there may be inadequate segregation of crops, such as crops for human vs. animal feed with the StarLink corn recall. j. StarLink corn is a GMO product FDA approved for animal feed but not human feed, and found in September of 2000 in human food. $1 billion was lost. Companies affected included Kraft, taco Bell, Mission, and Kellog’s 2. Economics a. Opponents say small farmers will be affected negatively by GM crop technology, making them dependent on big firms. b. Biotech crops could be too expensive in developing countries. c. Increased reliance on monocultures, with 90 % of food being grown from 15 crops. 1. Monoculture crops predisposition for disease and pests due to lack of diversity. 2. Opponents also say