This lesson is designed for the NEW AQA Trilogy Biology GCSE, particularly the ‘Inheritance, variation and evolution’ SoW.
 
The lesson starts with pupils think > pair > sharing some of the advantages and disadvantages of genetic technologies that they have learnt about so far. Following this pupils will watch a selection of videos about genetic modification, pupils will need to listen and write down any advantages or disadvantages they pick up from the videos.
 
For higher ability pupils you could extend this task by asking them to consider the organisations behind the videos and why they may have certain viewpoints.
 
Pupils will then be given a card sort in groups, the cards demonstrate concerns and benefits of gene technologies. Pupils can discuss the information and use it to finish off the table of advantages and disadvantages they started with the previous task. This task can be self-assessed using the mark scheme provided.
 
The next activity requires pupils to complete a newspaper articles on the pro’s and con’s of gene technologies, within the articles pupils must represent the viewpoints of an organic farmer, a charity campaigner, a doctor, an ecologist, a scientist working on a new gene technology.
 
The final activity is an exam-style question. Pupils can complete this in their books and self-assess their work once they are finished.
 
The plenary activity is for pupils to pick a task, either unscramble 5 anagrams to reveal key words or write a summary sentence including a number of key words from the lesson