Growing Capacity in Gifted and Talented Education Through Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM)

A graduate-level gifted and talented education (GTE) course for in-service teachers was revised aiming to prepare teachers to integrate science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) education into existing curricula to create challenging learning experiences for students identified as gifted and talented. Two university-based teacher educators in science education and GTE, respectively, engaged in action research in order to develop and refine a semester-long STEAM project in the GTE course to accomplish this goal. In all, two elementary, one Music, and one World History teacher participated. Case study analysis explored the teachers’ approaches to developing STEAM-based lessons to expand their GTE toolkit, as well as teacher-reported effects on their students. The lessons implemented are discussed in light of guidance from reviewed literature, including student-centeredness, inquiry-driven, problem-based, peer interaction, and local contextual relevance

Modeling genetic imprinting effects of DNA sequences with multilocus polymorphism data

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) represent the most widespread type of DNA sequence variation in the human genome and they have recently emerged as valuable genetic markers for revealing the genetic architecture of complex traits in terms of nucleotide combination and sequence. Here, we extend an algorithmic model for the haplotype analysis of SNPs to estimate the effects of genetic imprinting expressed at the DNA sequence level. The model provides a general procedure for identifying the number and types of optimal DNA sequence variants that are expressed differently due to their parental origin. The model is used to analyze a genetic data set collected from a pain genetics project. We find that DNA haplotype GAC from three SNPs, OPRKG36T (with two alleles G and T), OPRKA843G (with alleles A and G), and OPRKC846T (with alleles C and T), at the kappa-opioid receptor, triggers a significant effect on pain sensitivity, but with expression significantly depending on the parent from which it is inherited (p = 0.008). With a tremendous advance in SNP identification and automated screening, the model founded on haplotype discovery and statistical inference may provide a useful tool for genetic analysis of any quantitative trait with complex inheritance