1 Pediatric Surgical Research Labs, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown,
MA, USA
2 Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
e-mail: perkins{at}helix.mgh.harvard.edu and perrimon{at}rascal.med.harvard.edu
As most of us are aware, today's primary school, high school and undergraduate biology programs are struggling to incorporate even a fraction of the `molecular revolution' of biological knowledge and technologies that surround us. In the first term alone, life science and biology classes of the new millennia routinely cover condensed versions of the year-long classes taught in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Teachers no longer have the luxury of spending half a year presenting Mendel and his peas.
As many of us appreciate, fruit flies offer a superb means to illustrate basic Mendelian principles to kids as young as primary school age. Among model organisms used in research, the fruit fly is one of the most thoroughly analyzed, and it is appreciated by geneticists, neurobiologists and developmental biologists alike. In addition, flies are a practical choice of school and undergraduate teachers because of their relative ease of handling, their small size, their rapid generation time and, not least, because of their rich array of easily scored and provocative mutant phenotypes.
Play
However, imagine yourself, if you will, surrounded by 22 eager [read: impatient], inquisitive [read: demanding] and communicative [read: shouting] eleven-year-olds, whilst simultaneously hearing: `Is this fly a girl or boy?', `Are these specks pupae or larvae?', `Is this fly poop?', `My flies are escaping. Are they going to bite me?', `But Mendel used peas, right?', `Teacher, Sandy's gonna be sick!'
Stop. Rewind... Play
Now imagine yourself in total control of those same 22 eleven-year-olds while all 44 eyes are glued to the tube [more than likely their favorite activity], with each of the above mentioned questions answered in living color during a 40-minute educational and entertaining CD-ROM entitled Fly Cycle2. Joy!
Fly Cycle2: the movie
For these reasons, among others, the 40-minute CD-ROM created by Mary Tyler and Ronald Kozlowski, with contributions from Rachel Fink, Shinya Inoue, Dan Kiehart, Eric Wieschaus and Paul Young, should become a welcome and familiar tool for students in biology and genetics classes at primary school and high school, and at undergraduate and even graduate levels.
Fly Cycle2 introduces the viewer to the life cycle of
the fly from several perspectives. First, a section on reproduction provides
clear and detailed footage of adult courting behaviors and mating [teaching
aid: tell the kids it's for adults only]. Second, Fly
Cycle2 illustrates beautifully the various stages of embryonic
development, larval growth and metamorphosis. Third, a number of the mutant
phenotypes commonly used in introductory Drosophila genetics courses
are described.
|
The target audiences of FlyCycle2 are as diverse as the field of Drosophila genetics that it addresses. When making the movie, the authors must have struggled with what to include and what to leave out. For example, oogenesis, so intensely studied today, is not included in the current version, nor is there presented a practical way to handle and perform genetic crosses.
Perhaps one way to sufficiently address the needs of each target audience is to think of the next step: what will Fly Cycle3 look like? Our suggestion would be to divide future Fly Cycle3 content into sections targeting each audience level. Fly Cycle3 Part 1 could target younger students and fly novices, and could describe the Drosophila life cycle, sex differences and mating behaviors, as well as explaining salivary gland chromosomes and showing common genetic mutations. Fly Cycle3 Part 2 could target more advanced students (those taking lab classes), and could include basic genetic information like how to pick virgins, how to make and follow simple F1 and F2 crosses, and how to clone a gene. Finally, Fly Cycle3 Part 3, for the most advanced students, could describe novel visualization methods using green fluorescence proteins to follow specific developmental processes, and could include descriptions of various genetic technologies used in research today.
Stylistically, the movie could be improved with a more energetic narrative and, particularly desirable, pauses between sentences and subjects, as well as more pointers/arrows to direct the viewer's attention to the structures being described. Finally, although there is a terrific introduction in the movie, the ending is too abrupt and a summary would be helpful.
Nevertheless, we give Fly Cycle2 two thumbs ups, we highly recommend it and we look forward to Fly Cycle3. As far as we are concerned, this educational tool should be promoted, made widely available and developed further.