Can We Continue to Blame Genes for Mental Illness?

Screencap from the article from Big Think

As I re-examine my course and content, I was going over the genetics and biological predisposition with genetics at the fore to describe the causal factors of depression and schizophrenia.

I was reexamining the information on the twin studies.  The texts I was reading gave great props to the twin studies.

This morning, I ran across this article on Big Think. Both the article and comments make for some fascinating reading.

The title of the post was "Mental Illness: It's Not in Your Genes"

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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More than Mouse Party

It's not that Mouse Party isn't one of the most amazing websites for teaching about how various drugs affect neural tranmission - CAUSE IT IS - but there's a lot more to this site than just Mouse Party. Check out some other offerings from the Genetic Science Learning Center at the University of Utah:

• Tour of the Basics - animation with narration that explains what the following are: DNA, gene, chromosome, protein, heredity and trait
• The New Science of Addiction 
• Welcome to the synapse - you are Cerebral Commando (game)
• The Time of Our Lives - circadian rhythms and biological clocks
• PTC: Genes and Bitter Taste - genetics of PTC sensitivity
• How Cells Communicate During the Fight or Flight Response and 3-D animation of this
• Epigenetics and a video on the epigenetics of identical twins

Oh - did I mention the lesson plans and activities? Oh my!

So - how do you use Mouse Party and these other sites in your class? Have you played Cerebral Commando or used any of these other links? Please share below!

P.S. I could listen to the Mouse Party music all day. Is that wrong?
-- posted by Steve

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NIH Curriculum Supplement Series

The National Institute of Health has created a number of curriculum supplements. While written primarily for a science class, many lessons can be adapted to a high school psychology course. Below you will find information regarding the supplements from NIH website at http://science-education.nih.gov/customers.nsf/WebPages/CSHome Be sure to check out both the high school AND middle school supplements.

HTML and PDF versions of each supplement are online and accessible to all. Print versions are FREE upon request to educators in the U.S.

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The Genetic Science Learning Center from the University of Utah

The University of Utah's Genetic Science Learning Center includes a host of activities for students to explore the wonders of genetics, heredity, drugs and much more. No doubt, the most popular at the site is "Mouse Party" where students learn the effects of various drugs on the physiological system. Click here for a link to the site.

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