Assignment

Now let's take a look in your genetic closet ... did you find any "skeletons"? Be sure and review the attached rubric very carefully to see the assignment grading criteria.

LAB PROJECT: YOUR FAMILY HEALTH HISTORY ". . . the rich ate and drank freely, accepting gout and apoplexy as things that ran mysteriously in respectable families . . ." -George Eliot Here are your instructions for your third lab project, students:

You will construct a family "heath tree"- this will involve both a little genealogy research and sharp interviewing skills on your part to first construct a family tree. It should include your children, your siblings and their children, your parents, grandparents, blood aunts, uncles and first cousins at the MINIMUM! If you can generate information further back (at the great-grandparent or before stage).

I encourage you to do so, but be aware when you ask what great-grandpa had or died from you may hear answers like "quinsy", "dropsy" or "consumption". Be prepared to try to determine what these terms even mean! (Google and medical dictionary sites are recommended for this). Here are a couple of good ones on the Web!: Old Medical Term Glossary The type of information you are after here is two-fold:

1) What health problems did/does each person experience (asthma, diabetes, autoimmune disease, heart disease/attack, stroke, cancer, depression or other mood disorders, alcoholism, repeated ear infections as a child, etc. along with risk behaviors such as smoking or obesity). If they are deceased, at what age did they die? and

2) From this information, what clear inheritable disease tendencies appear in your own personal gene 'wading pool'? You should address these risk factors and your concerns/plans for managing them in your conclusions and summary. Here is a great VERY helpful website that you may find very useful in completing this project! Family Health History You can download it and submit it as an attachment with your summary. And here is a useful checklist type questionnaire from Dr, Oz which you may also find useful: You may complete this project as a written narrative or using Excel or the organizational chart function in Word or PPT ...I really want the students to find their own "style" for this project ...I get PPTs, spreadsheets, charts, web-based ones like yours, and written narratives ... ALL are acceptable, and I like the variety! :-)

Please submit your family history data and your conclusions below, This should be submitted as an attachment and be sure you include a summary of your findings and what you think they mean to (and for) your future. Include what can you do to try to avoid any hereditary health issues that you discovered! You must also post a brief summary of what you learned in the appropriate place on the Discussion board to talk about with your fellow classmates.

Remember that you needn't post anything you feel sensitive or uncomfortable about! Last comment:

What if your family is very small, fragmented or you are adopted? That's OK ... you may BORROW a family, maybe a spouse's or a close friend's!