Introduction

Stem Cells: Science, Ethics, and Politics provides instructors and students with resources and activities that highlight the basic science, techniques, and applications of stem cell research. Each assignment focuses on a particular aspect of stem cell biology and its relationship with clinical medicine, environmental toxicity screening, and reproduction. The five activities that comprise this curriculum supplement have three central objectives. The first is to use stem cell research as a vehicle to teach basic scientific principles and concepts of cell biology, specifically cell structures, signal transduction, gene expression, apoptosis, and cell differentiation. The second is to attract and maintain student interest in science by making connections to the ethical and political dimensions of this research. Ideally, by unraveling these stories for themselves, and grappling with the scientific and social issues in both their studies and classroom activities, students will start to actively teach themselves the basic science and thoughtfully reflect upon its social relevance. And this would be a third central objective of these teaching activities: to teach students to actively learn for themselves, rather than be passive consumers of information fed to them by a teacher or textbook.

The Activities in this teaching module draw upon a broad array of resources related to stem cells: from informative pieces in the press and television, to textbook excerpts, to the secondary and primary scientific literature. As the instructor, you will need to decide which suggested readings/media items seem most appropriate for your students. The selection of primary literature was chosen to help students learn that science is a gradual process: a series of experiments built on previous findings conducted by members of a community who strive to increase their understanding about the world around them. The selection of secondary literature was chosen to place these incremental advances in scientific understanding within a larger conceptual context by reviewing the prior research, summarizing the impact of the present discovery, highlighting unanswered questions, and pointing to future experiments and applications.

Each of the five activities has been developed modularly in order that it can be used on its own, in combination with another activity or activities, or as a complete series. Student learning outcomes are listed on the home page for each activity, with links to assignments, teaching notes, sample student work, and answer keys. Each "Assignment" sheet outlines the activity and suggested readings and students can also refer to the larger References document, the Timeline, and Scoring Rubric. Additional Student Resources include peer assessment and self-reflective reading and writing guides.

Instructors should be aware that the assignments explore a variety of learning styles and authentic assignments: Activity 2 and 4 resemble more traditional learning, focusing on primary literature readings and analysis, while Activities 1, 3, and 5 ask students to engage with the content in much the same way that scientists themselves have done in this field via interviews with the media, journal club meetings, conferences, symposia, and letters to policy makers. Assignment 2 in Activity 1, is a good place to start and can be assigned in any course as a first activity. This assignment demonstrates the varied perspectives of stem cell research using a series of short news articles, thought questions, and focused class discussion. Exposing students to the social relevance and the personalities behind stem cell research through this activity, helps them make the transition to more sophisticated activities that involve data analysis of research papers and the application of new knowledge to inform public policy debates.

Because teaching students how to comprehend and analyze primary literature is an important goal of this module, prominent research studies and reviews may appear in multiple activities. The recent and fraudulent work of Hwang and Moon, reporting the first successful attempt at cloning a human blastocyst, is referenced in all activities, but is approached in different ways: In Activity 1, a news articles mentions the study, in Activity 3, 4, and 5 the associated research articles appear as important background reading, whereas in Activity 2 they are the central focus and approached via a close reading and detailed analysis of the data and figures. For instructors teaching advanced level biology students, Activity 3 offers a journal club option centered on 10-20 different research articles with their accompanying companion review pieces.

Regardless of which readings and activities might work best for your class, the topic readily lends itself to a wide variety of learning experiences, from basic discussion of the social issues to more advanced scientific activities, such as planning new experiments or envisioning new applications. Perhaps what is most exciting about the topic is that the story, on either the scientific or social level, is not yet complete. With respect to scientific research, the identity of the many growth factors involved in cell differentiation and the details of genetic reprogramming remain unknown. New applications for the stem cells and the methods by which they are derived are being developed, and this in turn leads back to questions regarding the social impact of science. In addition, all these avenues of research offer students a view into the world of high-tech biology.

Though many students will enter the conversation with background in either the social or scientific dimensions of the field, it is important for students and instructors alike to familiarize themselves more broadly. The "Stem Cell Primer" provides the necessary scientific and historical foundation needed to administer the learning activities, and reviews the ethical and social dimensions of the field as it applies to public health. Instructors may choose to distribute this mini-review to students. Alternatively, instructors may decide it is better for students to construct their own knowledge of the subject by working through the assignments offered in the learning activities.

The "Teaching Notes" overview the activity itself, the assigned readings and media assets, implementation plans, and assessment opportunities. To accommodate a wide variety of educational environments the teaching notes provide step-by-step instructions for implementation. However, the activities were designed to be as flexible as possible, and where appropriate alternative versions of activities and assignments have been developed. While these "Teaching Notes" provide a detailed guide, instructors are encouraged to modify the activities, swap components, or simply use the suggested media resources to complement a course.

The References document contains over 200 references organized by subject and media format, and many take advantage of the internet utilizing animations, colorful imagery, and interactive components. Because some institutions have limited access to journals, citations refer to freely available papers when possible, but primary references are included in the resources and bibliography. For instructors who are teaching introductory biology major courses or advanced level non-majors courses, Life Itself, written by Boyce Rensberger, could be assigned as a supplement to the Molecular Biology of the Cell, Essential Cell Biology, or Biology Today texts. In addition, instructors and students should review the National Institutes of Health stem cell primer titled, Stem Cells: Scientific Progress and Future Research Directions.

My hope is that each instructor will be able to identify the particular tools and ideas that will be valuable in their own courses, and use them to improve student learning and retention of cell biology concepts. While the activities and assessments in this module focus on the study of stem cell research, the pedagogical approach for the activities is based upon years of research about effective teaching in the sciences. Some of the ideas came out of workshops, articles, and presentations by scientists and educators, and credit must go to the community as a whole. I welcome any comments and suggestions that would improve the administration and content of this project. I am also collaborating with users to collect data on student learning, and should you be interested in participating in this education research project, please email me at .

Document available in PDF format: Stem Cells - Introduction

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