Biology Beyond the Classroom

After a last minute schedule change, we were thrilled to welcome Cecilia Kim, Upper School Biology Teacher at Germantown Academy, to speak to the PhillyGEMS. She spoke about life before becoming a teacher, when she was conducting genetics research at CHOP. The kids were fascinated by the process of collecting DNA - through saliva or blood - and felt the saliva would be the preferable way to go!

The activity also centered around genetics as the kids created their own monster babies. Characteristics of monster parent #1 and monster parent #2 were given. Traits like: one eye vs two eyes, polka dots vs stripes, and red skin vs green skin. Each child flipped a coin for each characteristic - heads would get the trait from parent #1 and tails from parent #2. In this way, each baby was unique, even though they were from the same two parents. It was fun and they kids learned their first lesson in genetics! Here are some of the monster babies.