'Genetics and Citizens', developed by Highwire and funded by a Wellcome Trust 'Society' Award, has been developed for teaching KS4 students in Science, English and Citizenship.

The main aims are for students to develop:
• an understanding of complex arguments with a variety of competing perspectives
• an understanding of the science necessary to have an informed debate
• an analytic framework of questions that can be used to interrogate texts

This is done using a variety of methods including teacher-in-role, student roleplay, digital presentations and hands-on multimedia and web authoring.

In 'Genetics and Citizens' students are taken through a process of seeing the promise of genetics, and then digging deeper to consider different agendas and how society impacts on science. Students look at different scenarios around genetic testing and designer babies, genetic screening and id profiles, profit and political ideologies. They are asked to act in role to develop characters with different perspectives, and over the course of the lessons, to develop an analytical framework of questions that become the basis for textual analysis of newspaper reports and case studies.