Something that really made me proud of my son today...
Shawn- who is in 7th grade, is doing a semester in science right now focusing on cellular biology. Being the nature/science boy that he is, he loves this and comes home every day determined to show me up for any possible lack of knowledge that I have. <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif" border="0">
Anyway, they are learning about dna, proteins, amino acids, etc right now. With dna they learned about base pairs, etc and now they've begun learning about proteins and amino acids and how they make up the structure of dna and chromosomes; how they are only very tiny parts of a cell but can affect how the entire cell functions.
So... I took this opportunity to talk to him a little bit about the more complex workings of the CFTR gene & protein, how this is a perfect example of this: it's function, how we all have the CFTR gene but when it's mutated it causes a disease that affects not only a cell, but an entire person, made up of millions and millions of cells. He found this completely fascinating in the context of what he is currently learning at school. He already knows quite a bit about CF but I hadn't gone into explanations on quite this much of a scientific level. He just ate it up and on his own, wanted to share it with his class.
We printed up an easy-to-understand article about this and he underlined parts he wants to read if the teacher is OK with it, as well as a picture of the CFTR protein in a cool helix-type format to pass around. He is all excited about this and knows it's the type of thing that the teacher also gives out 'initiative' credits for. She actively encourages this type of 'extra' stuff, & since it meshes so well with what they are learning I am sure she will be happy to let him share with the class.
Anyway, sorry so long but just wanted to share... Shawn is often rather closed-mouth about the health issues our family faces and to see him so enthusiastic about talking about it in this setting made my day. <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">
Shawn- who is in 7th grade, is doing a semester in science right now focusing on cellular biology. Being the nature/science boy that he is, he loves this and comes home every day determined to show me up for any possible lack of knowledge that I have. <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif" border="0">
Anyway, they are learning about dna, proteins, amino acids, etc right now. With dna they learned about base pairs, etc and now they've begun learning about proteins and amino acids and how they make up the structure of dna and chromosomes; how they are only very tiny parts of a cell but can affect how the entire cell functions.
So... I took this opportunity to talk to him a little bit about the more complex workings of the CFTR gene & protein, how this is a perfect example of this: it's function, how we all have the CFTR gene but when it's mutated it causes a disease that affects not only a cell, but an entire person, made up of millions and millions of cells. He found this completely fascinating in the context of what he is currently learning at school. He already knows quite a bit about CF but I hadn't gone into explanations on quite this much of a scientific level. He just ate it up and on his own, wanted to share it with his class.
We printed up an easy-to-understand article about this and he underlined parts he wants to read if the teacher is OK with it, as well as a picture of the CFTR protein in a cool helix-type format to pass around. He is all excited about this and knows it's the type of thing that the teacher also gives out 'initiative' credits for. She actively encourages this type of 'extra' stuff, & since it meshes so well with what they are learning I am sure she will be happy to let him share with the class.
Anyway, sorry so long but just wanted to share... Shawn is often rather closed-mouth about the health issues our family faces and to see him so enthusiastic about talking about it in this setting made my day. <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">