Personal Genetics Education Project
{{Short description|Project advocating learning about one's genome}}
The Personal Genetics Education Project (pgEd){{cite web | title=The Personal Genetics Education Project (pgEd) Main Page | url=http://pged.org |accessdate=8 Jun 2013}} aims to engage and inform a worldwide audience about the benefits of knowing one's genome as well as the ethical, legal and social issues (ELSI){{cite web | title=Genetics Websites from Harvard University and the World Health Organization | year=2007 | url= http://www.eyeondna.com/2007/07/28/genetics-websites-from-harvard-university-and-the-world-health-organization/}} and dimensions of personal genetics.{{cite journal | author=M.E. Gelbart | year=2012 |title=Catching Education Up with Technology: Preparing the Public to Make Informed Choices about Personal Genetics |journal= CBE: Life Sciences Education | volume=11 |issue=1 | pages=1–2 | doi=10.1187/cbe.11-10-0092 | pmid=22383610 | pmc=3292065 |url = http://www.lifescied.org/content/11/1/1}} pgEd was founded in 2006, is housed in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and is directed by Ting Wu, a professor in that department. It employs a variety of strategies for reaching general audiences, including generating online curricular materials,{{cite web | title=pgEd Lesson Plans | url=http://pged.org/lesson-plans | accessdate=7 Jun 2013}} leading discussions in classrooms, workshops, and conferences, developing a mobile educational game (Map-Ed), holding an annual conference geared toward accelerating awareness (GETed{{cite web | title= GETed Annual meeting | date=26 Apr 2013 |url=http://pged.org/geted/}}), and working with the world of entertainment to improve accuracy and outreach.{{cite news | date=21 Feb 2013 | author=Chelsey Coombs |publisher=NASW | title=AAAS Meeting It's Personal: Modern Genetics Shapes Medicine, Public Education | url=http://www.nasw.org/its-personal-modern-genetics-shapes-medicine-public-education}}{{cite web | title=Harvard Medicine's "Personalized Medicine" issue featuring Ting Wu | url=http://hms.harvard.edu/news/harvard-medicine/dilemmas-destiny}}{{cite web | title= Genetics Home Reference from the National Institutes of Health | url= http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/Resources/education}}{{cite web | title=American Society for Human Genetics resources | url= http://www.ashg.org/education/resources.shtml}}
Online curricular materials and professional development for teachers
pgEd develops tools for teachers and general audiences that examine the potential benefits and risks of personalized genome analysis. These include freely accessible, interactive lesson plans that tackle issues such as genetic testing of minors, reproductive genetics, complex human traits and genetics, and the history of eugenics. pgEd also engages educators at conferences as well as organizes professional development workshops. All of pgEd's materials are freely available online.{{cite journal | title=The Genome Generation | journal=Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory's Connections Magazine (PgEd Staff Dana Waring) | pages=5–7 |url= http://www.flipdocs.com/showbook.aspx?ID=10008985_740176 |date=Fall 2012}}{{cite journal | author=Kung, Johnny T., and Marnie E. Gelbart. 2012. |title=Getting a head start: The importance of personal genetics education in high schools. |journal=The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine |year=2012 |volume=85 |issue=1 |pages= 87–92 |pmid=22461746 |pmc=3313542 | url= http://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/10318218/3313542.pdf?sequence=1}}{{cite journal |author1=Ting Wu |author2=Dana Waring. |name-list-style=amp |year=2009 |journal=Genomics Law Report |title=The next generation ..... is in high school | url = http://www.genomicslawreport.com/index.php/2009/10/20/the-next-generation-is-in-high-school/}}{{cite news | date= 11 Sep 2008 | publisher=Harvard Gazette | title=When genetics gets personal | url= http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2008/09/when-genetics-gets-personal/}}
Map-Ed, a mobile quiz
In 2013, pgEd created a mobile educational quiz called [http://map-ed.org Map-Ed].{{cite web | title= Map-Ed.org Main page | url=http://map-ed.org|accessdate=8 Jun 2013}} Map-Ed invites players to work their way through five questions that address key concepts in genetics and then pin themselves on a world map. Within weeks of its launch, Map-Ed gained over 1,000 pins around the world, spanning across all 7 continents. Translations and new maps linked to questions on topics broadly related to genetics are in development.
GETed conference
pgEd hosts the annual GETed conference, a meeting that brings together experts from across the United States and beyond in education, research, health, entertainment, and policy to develop strategies for accelerating public awareness. Topics covered during these conferences have included reproductive technologies, human behavior and cognition, microbiomes, the intersection of faith and genetics, interplanetary travel, the importance of engaging the political sphere, and the power of entertainment and gaming to reach millions.
Education and Entertainment Interface
pgEd is working with Sandra de Castro Buffington and Hollywood, Health & Society at the Norman Lear Center, University of Southern California (USC) Annenberg School for Communication, to advance awareness about personal genetics through television.{{cite web | title= Hollywood, Health & Society Director appointed to Harvard Medical School's Personal Genetics Education Project | url= http://hollywoodhealthandsociety.org/whats-new/hhs-director-buffington-appointed-advisory-board-%E2%80%A8harvard-medical-schools-personal-genetic | access-date= 2013-06-08 | archive-url= https://archive.today/20130620221135/http://hollywoodhealthandsociety.org/whats-new/hhs-director-buffington-appointed-advisory-board-%E2%80%A8harvard-medical-schools-personal-genetic | archive-date= 2013-06-20 | url-status= dead }}{{cite web | title=Video of pgEd staff Marnie Gelbart and Sandra de Castro Buffington at the 2013 GET conference on expanding and accelerating personal genetics education | url=http://fora.tv/2013/04/25/Genetics_in_Hollywood_Storylines_that_Improve_Health| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130515094832/http://fora.tv/2013/04/25/Genetics_in_Hollywood_Storylines_that_Improve_Health| url-status=usurped| archive-date=May 15, 2013}} They have also worked with the Broad Institute on outreach via fiction.{{cite web | title=Video of pgEd staff at the Broad Institute, speaking about 'Genomics, Science and Fiction' | website=YouTube |url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jrPNO1E1AU}}{{cite web | title=Genetic Alliance - pgEd in 2012 'Meet your neighbors' | url=http://www.geneticalliance.org/myn.archive | access-date=2013-06-08 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130606105035/http://www.geneticalliance.org/myn.archive | archive-date=2013-06-06 | url-status=dead }}{{cite web | title=Northwest Association for Biomedical Research (NWABR) Bioethics Resources | date= 3 March 2013 | url= http://nwabr.org/events-programs/professional-development-educators/ethics-science-classroom/other-bioethics |accessdate=7 Jun 2013}}
Advisory board
pgEd's advisory board includes Sandra de Castro Buffington, Director, Hollywood Health and Society,{{cite web | url=http://www.learcenter.org/html/about/?cm=buffington | title=Sandra de Castro Buffington | publisher=Norman Lear Center}} George M. Church, Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Juan Enriquez, Managing Director at Excel Venture Management, and Marc Hodosh, Co-Creator of TEDMED.