How Novel Icefish Genes Can Improve Human Health

Photo of an icefish in sub-freezing water

Topic

Resource Type

Level

High School — General High School — AP/IB College

Saved By

7 Users

Description

This lesson supports concepts covered in the film The Birth and Death of Genes. After watching the film and reading a couple of scientific passages, students explain how understanding about icefish adaptations might help develop treatments for health conditions.

Students will read about two common human conditions: anemia and osteoporosis. Both share similarities with icefish adaptations. Students are then asked to explain how icefish adaptations affect different aspects of physiology and make inferences about how studying the genetics of these traits could help develop treatments to improve human health. In an extension activity, students complete a framework for a short essay about how icefish can serve as a model organism for studying human health.

Student Learning Targets

Describe the connections between a genetic variation, a trait affecting a protein or cell, and an organism’s physiology.

Estimated Time

One to two 50-minute class periods.

Key Terms

anemia, blood, bone density, hemoglobin, model organism, mutation, osteoporosis, oxygen, trait, variation

Terms of Use

The resource is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. No rights are granted to use HHMI’s or BioInteractive’s names or logos independent from this Resource or in any derivative works.