What does GENA Certification involve?

Step 1:  Participation in the GENA Project begins with an electronic application.  It is important that applicants answer each question thoroughly, including the last question that asks for a description of why applicants are interested in the program.  Applications can be found online at:

Application for Geneticists

Application for High School Biology Educators

Step 2:  Geneticists are interviewed about their research and interest in the program and those that fulfill project criteria and are willing to commit to a full year of participation, are selected.  Once a geneticist is selected for participation in the program we will notify teachers in the area that they are welcome to apply for the program.  Unfortunately, we can only serve teachers where there is an active geneticist within traveling distance.

Step 3:  Educator applicants are then interviewed and selected.

Step 4:  Geneticists and their educator partners will attend a 2.5 day workshop that concentrates on inquiry-centered pedagogical approaches, standards-based education, curriculum development and assessment.  During this workshop, partners will identify an area of genetics content that the educators would like to alter in their genetics curriculum.  This can be a topic that they find difficult to teach and usually avoid, a topic they usually teach in a standard lecture format but would prefer to present it with an inquiry focus, or a topic they usually teach with an inquiry component that they would like to update.  It does not have to be a new topic.  Each member of an alliance will receive a stipend for attending the workshop.

Step 5:  Each Geneticist-Educator Alliance works together over the next several days, weeks or months to develop and complete the learning cycle they will implement in the classroom.  Alliances will implement and assess their intervention/learning cycle in the classroom.  If time permits, alliances will also attempt to implement the intervention and assessment designed by another alliance.  In the first year (2007-2008), alliances may not have enough time to attempt the second intervention.  In following years, alliances will be expected to complete both interventions.

Step 6:  During the year of participation, members of each alliance will be expected to pose and respond to questions on an electronic forum.  This forum will provide GENA members with the opportunity to ask genetics or pedagogy questions in a non-threatening manner and receive instant feedback.

Step 7:  Alliances will publish their interventions, including the results of the assessment, and their own evaluation of the success of the intervention on the www.GenEdNet.org site.  This material will be reviewed by a panel of reviewers and submitted to the Genetics Education Clearinghouse, the ASHG/GSA-supported genetics education digital library.

Step 8:  Members of alliances with successful interventions will be assisted in the drafting of articles for scientific and science teaching journals.

Step 9:  After all interventions are implemented, alliances may choose to stay as part of the project or not.  Alliances that would like to remain as partners are encouraged to do so.  They are also encouraged to assist in the recruiting of colleagues to participate in this project in attempts to form local learning communities in mini-GENA networks across the country.

Last updated 4.25.2007 by KMS.  This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0634296.