Current Events in Biotechnology

Objectives:

• Understand the different fields that biotechnology brings together

• Give an overview of various applications of biotechnology

• Appreciate the different applications and understand how they work

Suggested Grades:

6th Grade - 7th Grade - 8th Grade - 9th Grade

Lesson Procedure:

Print the reading comprehension passage and questions (see below).

Students should read the passage silently, then answer the questions. Teachers may also use the text as part of a classroom lesson plan.

Lesson Excerpt:

Biotechnology related headlines are mentioned in daily news more than ever. This relatively new technology is helping to develop methods to be used in many areas, some of which are agriculture, medicine and even law. As biotechnology advances, the need to agglomerate different areas of science is becoming a necessity. As a result, this relatively new area brings together researchers from many different backgrounds such as genetics, chemistry, physics, mathematics and computer science. In order to understand how these different fields come together, let us talk about some daily life examples that you might have heard discussed in the news.

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