Dear Educator,
Making genetics education fun and accessible has been core to our mission since we launched in 2007. Understanding our genome is possibly the most exciting scientific discovery of our lifetime and it is a scientific experience we should all be able to enjoy and participate in. At 23andMe we believe anyone can learn about and understand genetics and that it should be fun for all age and education levels.
My passion for education comes from my parents, both of whom are educators. My father is a particle physicist and my mother is a high school journalism teacher. I saw first hand how hard it was for the physics community to explain what they do and show people why it is meaningful. At the same time I saw my mother take complicated concepts and get high school students to learn and write about them. Together, they taught me that anyone can learn any subject.
Learning about your genetics is fundamentally a very personal experience and helps people understand why they are the way they are. Over the last ten years, the tools created by 23andMe have been used in classrooms of all sorts. From kindergarten teachers using our children’s book to explain DNA, to medical schools developing whole curriculums off our health reports. It’s thrilling and exciting to see all ages learning about genetics and how it impacts their life.
We are eager to engage with you, the educator, more proactively in the coming years. We are committed to creating a place where educators can learn and discuss genetics and where we can have tools available for you to use. We welcome your feedback and suggestions and we promise to continue to develop out a robust site for the education world.
We look forward to being your partner as the genome is decoded and genetics becomes an increasingly important factor in our lives.
