Irene Evans on Teaching from new HeLa cell book by Skloot
"Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa." So begins the insert introduction to Rebecca Skloot's new book titled "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks". I am going to use this book in my Tissue Culture course that I will once again teach to 90 plus students. In the laboratory, they will have a chance to grow the HeLa cell line and become intimate with HeLa. The students are horrified to find out Henrietta was never consulted about making her cells into a cell line and that her family, many of whom have no medical care, never knew their Mother's cells were being grown in laboratories all around the world. The cells went into space, were injected into prisoners to see if they could transmit cancer, were subject to a nuclear bomb, and used to make the polio vaccine. Due to their hardiness and widespread dissemination, HeLa cells contaminated other cell lines. If you want to drive home why you need good sterile laboratory techniques, what exactly a cell line is, why HeLa cells are immortal and skin cells are not, consider reading and using this book. Get a discussion going on whether a person has "rights" to a cell line made from cells taken from their body? Have students put themselves into Henrietta's mind and imagine how she, who never finished high school, felt when she was examined at Johns Hopkins in the "colored-only" waiting room by a highly educated white doctor who told her she had cancer. Ask pre-med students how they would approach a patient like Henrietta today. Students who read the book say they can't put it down. You don't get this reaction to many textbooks!
I don't think these strategies work unless you have all the control over your class. I have to do a unit in a long class, and if I don't present the material, the students suffer, so I can't really use this approach. I did enjoy the book though.
I think stories from real people's lives work because students think of the subject in "we" terms instead of some abstract, rather sterile "they" scientists they can't really visualize. Suddenly the students feel that these people doing this work sound like them, not so weird and overpoweringly brainy after all.
cheers,
Laura
I sometimes think the only things my students recall are the things that made them laugh, so bring on the funny anecdotes!
So you've used story-based courses a long time, Irene. That's inspiring. I like the sample conversation about Hayflick; as a gerontologist, I hear him glorified so much about the Hayflick Limit that it's fun to see him joking around.
I started teaching my Tissue Culture course using stories about cells when I was hired many many moons ago. Most of the texts on Cell Culture were wonderful references, but would serve as a cure for insomnia if used for sophomores wanting to learn how to grow cells. I found the HeLa story and made my own curriculum teaching the science behind the stories. I introduced the people behind the science and the stories; Leonard Hayflick deadpanning " I have called my wife and she tells me my worst fears are groundless". His daughter Susan Hayflick's cell line had become contaminated with HeLa cells and now showed an isoenzyme prevalent in black folks. What is an isoenzyme? How is DNA profiling (fingerprinting) used today to tell cell lines apart? I think using the story approach would work well in other courses to enrich the course material and to pique student interest. I was lucky because I designed my course which was part of the Biotechnology curriculum and I didn't have to cover all of cell biology or any prescribed materials.
I'm with you scifeminista, I only wish something this gripping had been included in some of my classes. How interesting it would be to discuss ethics of medical sampling in a class. Good stuff.
I was wondering about a visit too, but now I will probably suggest it to the university speaker committee because I'll bet my department would not be able to afford her now that she's a bit hit. Too bad I didn't invite her before the word was out! But I'm glad there's a list of where she's speaking on her web site so if she comes nearby, I can take a car full of students to hear her.
Hi Postdoc Cat,
If you go on Rebecca's web site at http://rebeccaskloot.com/ and look under events, you will find both a list of her appearances and a way to contact her agent for speaking engagements. Sorry, it does not say how much she charges, but usually people who work through such agents are pricey.
cheers,
Laura
I would have liked including material like this book in one or more of my classes. We never discussed anything that verged on human rights at all in biology or biochemistry classes.
I wonder if Rebecca Skoot would come and speak so my students could hear her? Probably she'd cost too much. Does anyone know how I could find out?
Hi Irene,
I wonder if this strategy would work in a cell biology course. I used cultured cells last time but not HeLa cells. Maybe I could get some WI38 or something with normal human diploid chromosomes to compare with HeLas and it would make an interesting series of experiments looking a gene expression and maybe ChIP assays? What do you think? I also believe if I had the students read the book and gave them discussion questions to use working in groups that would make the class more interesting. Thanks for the ideas!
It sounds like your plans would lead to discussion of some of the issues that women worry about in science, who is welcome where, what recourse do we have when things go wrong, are things getting better? I want to consider doing this too. Thanks, Irene.
