Summer SAVY 2016 (Session 5, Day 4) – More Data, More Problems: Tackling Genetic Epidemiology

Posted by hallep on Thursday, July 28, 2016 in Grade 5, Grade 6, SAVY.

Hello Students and Parents!

It’s hard to believe that today was day 4 and we only have one more day of Genetic Epidemiology!
Today we focused on learning about regression analyses and how to conduct these in R. We analyzed a sample dataset in order to determine if the waiting time between eruptions and the duration time of the eruptions of old faithful were associated with any statistical significance. Tomorrow we will be modifying and applying our code from today to analyze genetic and health data!

We also learned about two fantastic databases which geneticists use frequently, the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man database and the UCSC Genome Browser. With these resources, we were able to find a gene related to a disease or trait of interest and identify its genetic sequence. We then used the sequence to make gene bracelets or key chains!

Finally, we discussed misleading science news headlines and how it is our responsibility to critically evaluate all science that we see in the news and ask questions of others when we hear science news discussed.

Tomorrow is going to be an exciting day of data analysis and open house! See you then!