Genomics Analogy Model for Educators (GAME): VELCRO® Analogy Model to Enable the Learning of DNA Arrays for Visually Impaired and Blind Students.

Although members of the general public have often heard of the terms genetic engineering and, more recently, genomics, they typically have little to no knowledge about these topics, and in some cases are confused about basic concepts in these areas. There is currently a need for teaching models to explain concepts behind genomics. Additionally, almost nothing exists for teaching the visually impaired and blind about genomics. The purpose of the Genomics Analogy Model for Educators (GAME) approach is to convey the basic concepts of genomics to students using analogies and inexpensive materials that students encounter in their daily lives. In recent articles, we have introduced the GAME approach with several of its components. In this article, we present the concept that a VELCRO analogy model could be used to enable learning of the concepts of DNA microarrays for both fully-sighted and potentially visually impaired students. Classroom activities using VELCRO are proposed as a teaching module to explain how DNA microarrays work. In summary, differentially shaped VELCRO pieces fixed to a solid base are used to represent the array and the complementary pieces of VELCRO are used to represent the cDNA. Students can use this approach, for example, to explore expression patterns of “genes” (actually the mRNA from these genes) between experimental groups. We term this teaching approach the VELCRO Analogy