This project involves the development of a new multidisciplinary undergraduate course in the ethical, legal, and social implications of the Human Genome Project. Today's undergraduate college students will play an influential role in determining how information from the Human Genome Project is used. This course aims at providing genetic literacy and an introduction to key ethical, legal, and social implications of genome research. The course will be a model college course in three respects. First, it will serve as an exemplary offering within the framework of Dartmouth's new curriculum, which requires every student to take one multidisciplinary course and one course in Technology and Applied Science. Second, the course will be offered in conjunction with a Faculty Summer Seminar involving eight (multidisciplinary) pairs of teachers competitively selected from applicants from other liberal arts institutions. These teachers will be trained to carry their learning from this summer experience back to their home institutions, where they will be expected to introduce a similar course. They will also be encouraged to serve as regional disseminators of course materials and methods. Third, and finally, this will be a model course by drawing on the expertise of a distinguished Advisory Board to develop syllabi, bibliographies, source book readings, evaluational materials, and a library and catalog of relevant audio-visual materials, all of which can made available to other institutions as part of the ongoing Ethics Institute publication/media series, """"""""Dartmouth Teaching Resources in Applied and Professional Ethics."""""""" The course will offer a case-study oriented approach, focusing on representative genetic diseases, genetic programs, or episodes in the history of genetics. This approach enables students to learn to identify and assess emerging issues and allows them to apply and test the analytical skills they develop as the course proceeds. A case oriented approach also permits changes in course content (at Dartmouth or wherever the course is taught) as new issues emerge in genetic research. Dartmouth faculty resources in molecular biology, genetics, genetic counseling, ethics, and policy-related disciplines provide a rich basis of expertise that will be supplemented with appropriate outside advisors and lecturers. Dartmouth's physical setting and the academic resources of the College and the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center provide a foundation for widespread interest in the proposed Faculty Summer Seminar which will be critical for disseminating the results of the model course.
