National DNA Day commemorates the completion of the Human Genome Project in April 2003 and the discovery of the double helix of DNA in 1953. This year’s DNA Day is on Monday, April 25, 2016. Celebrate by participating in the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) the 11th Annual DNA Day Essay Contest!
This contest is open to students in grades 9–12 worldwide and asks students to examine, question, and reflect on important concepts in genetics. Essays are expected to be well-reasoned arguments indicative of a depth of understanding of the concepts related to the essay question. They are evaluated by ASHG members through three rounds of scoring.
This years prizes are better than ever!
| 1st Place Winner: | $1,000 for student $1,000 genetics materials grant & 5 MiniOne System kits for teacher |
| 2nd Place Winner: | $600 for student $600 genetics materials grant & 3 MiniOne System kits for teacher |
| 3rd Place Winner: | $400 for student $400 genetics materials grant & 2 MiniOne System kits for teacher |
| Honorable Mention: | 10 student prizes of $100 each |
11th Annual DNA Day Essay Question
Choose a genetic test that is currently available for a condition or disease that does not cause symptoms until adulthood (i.e., an adult-onset condition such as hereditary breast cancer). Describe how the test works and how certain the test results are. Then, either defend or refute the recommendation below from ASHG’s recent position statement on pediatric genetic testing.
“Adolescents should be encouraged to defer predictive or pre-dispositional testing for adult-onset conditions until adulthood because of the complexity of the potential impact of the information at formative life stages.”
Visit ASHG for more information and to enter the contest.
Deadline: Friday, March 11, 2016, 5:00 pm (U.S. Eastern Time)
