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I will send the same caution to the list that I do to teachers.  If you want
to do human inheritance work, be sensitive to the needs of visitors whose
children are not genetically related.  Although more and more families are
open with their children about adoption, not all of them are, and even those
of us who are don't necessarily want to have a discussion of the subject
with our child in a public space.

I strongly recommend to teachers that they do population genetics, instead
and save Mendelian genetics for a non-human organism.  Here's a great
project on human traits that could serve as a model:
http://www.k12science.org/curriculum/genproj/

Dave Smith, parent of an adopted child

On 6/6/07, Diana Issidorides <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
> institutions.
>
>
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>
> On Tue, 5 Jun 2007 15:05:02 -04006 Jun 2007, Martin Weiss  wrote:
>
> >       As you may be aware we are preparing an exhibition as part of
> > a research project on how children learn and understand evolution. As
> > part of this project we are looking for examples of exhibits that
> > relate to natural selection as the central thesis of Charles Darwin
> > which suggests that within every population of living organisms there
> > are random variations which have different survival value. Those
> > which aid survival (or enhance reproductive capacity) are 'selected'
> > by being genetically transmitted to succeeding generations.  So the
> > elements of natural selection are:
> >
> >       random variation of individuals within populations
> >       inheritance of traits
> >       selection of traits
> >       time for this to occur
> >       adaptation to environment
> >
> > Would you let me know if you've developed exhibits that engage
> > visitors on these topics or seen one that you think was particularly
> > effective?
> >
> > On-line or off-line and I will summarize for the list.
> >
> >
> > Martin
> > --
> > Martin Weiss, Ph.D
> > Vice President, Science
> > New York Hall of Science
> > 47-01 111 th Street
> > Corona, New York 11368
> > 718 699 0005 x 356
>
> Martin,
>
> For science center NEMO I have developed two effective exhibits on
> the inheritance of traits:
> 1. Make a Face: Two visitors take on the role of father and mother
> and create the face of their virtual child on a screen monitor by
> choosing which alleles to pass on to their child for a total of 8
> traits (eye color, hair color, shape of ears, lips, eyebrows etc.).
> As they make their choices, the face changes and transforms.
> 2. Family Tree:  Visitors can experiment with how eye color and
> earlobe shape, respectively, is passed down three generations (4
> grandparents, two parents and their child).
>
> Let me know if you want  photos or details.
>
> Diana
>
> – –
> Dr. Diana C. Issidorides
> Senior Scientist & Exhibition Developer
> Science Center NEMO
> P.O. Box 421
> 1000 AK Amsterdam
> The Netherlands
> T: +31205313201
> [log in to unmask] / [log in to unmask]
> www.e-nemo.nl
>

-- 
David L. Smith
Allentown, PA
[log in to unmask]

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