The Toronto District Science Education Scholarship is a Toronto-wide competition open to High school-level science classrooms. Participating educators will assign a poster project in line with this year’s topic and select students to represent their classroom at the Toronto District Science Fair during Science Rendezvous U of T on Saturday, May 11th 2019. The classrooms represented by the students with the top posters will be awarded a total of $1000 in scholarships ($1000 will be split accordingly).

Each school may register up to 8 posters in the High school-level competitions. Thus, we strongly encourage teachers to consult their colleagues before registering.

This year’s fair will be centred around the theme of molecular genetics and each poster should answer one of the following questions:

1. Science fiction films use fictional-based depictions of phenomena (e.g. genetic manipulation – bringing things back from the dead, giving people superpowers, global pandemics) that are not fully representative of current scientific knowledge. Choose a genetic – related science film of your choice and fact-check the science presented. Write a correction for the film so that the concepts are scientifically possible. Things to consider: Are the scientific concepts possible in real life (using the knowledge and technology that we have today)? How can the scenes be altered so that they can occur in real life?

2. Kuru is a disease that originated in the Fore linguistic population of Papua New Guinea Eastern Highlands. At its peak, the Kuru epidemic killed up to 2% of the village populations annually and imposed a strong selection pressure on the PRNP gene in the Fore groups affected by the disease. What is Kuru? Explain the symptoms, disease mechanism, and what led to the epidemic. Discuss selection pressure and what it led to in terms of the Kuru epidemic.

3. What is the Genetic Revolution and how will humans be affected by it? Discuss the potential problems as well as the possibilities that it holds for the future. What are the possible struggles we could potentially face and what are the potential futures that we foresee? Explain the downsides as well as the benefits with respective studies in the field.

4. Pick one of the following three genetic disorders and explain the cause of this disease in terms of genetics. Draw up an example of a three-generation pedigree of a family with the said disorder and discuss  how the gene is inherited. Explain the mechanism of the disease, its symptoms, and how this genetic disorder causes the disease phenotype. Are there potential therapies for  this disorder and if so discuss how the treatment combats the disease  
Diseases: Cystic Fibrosis, Hemophilia & Huntington.