Genetics Intro | Forecasting Cancer | SARS Equation | The Building Blocks of Life | X-Mice

X - Mice
By Justin Terry

___The 15th of April may be a school holiday, but David Terry, high school science teacher and PhD student, is hard at work. He is working simultaneously on the Biology curriculum for the coming semester and his PhD research project. The two are more intertwined than it may seem; they are closely linked by the humble mouse.

___David began his academic career at the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand with a Bachelor of Education. He then completed a Bachelor of Science degree at Macquarie University and an Honours thesis at Newcastle University. David followed these with a Masters of Education in Information Technology at the University of New England. He is currently enrolled in a PhD in Education at Newcastle University whilst completing in his 32nd year as a secondary school teacher.

___David’s PhD research project combines his interest in science, particularly Biology, and his experience with Information, Communication and Learning Technologies (ICLT). His aim is to design an interactive multimedia software package to teach students the basic principles of genetics. Over the last 25 years, David has amassed a large collection of mutant mice. The software he is developing will use these hybrid mutant mice to illustrate monohybrid crosses.

___This work is based on Mendelian Genetics. Instead of the pea plants and pictures used by Gregor Mendel, David’s work will use video clips of mice. This is where my involvement begins. We make our way through David’s backyard to a cubbyhouse that has been converted into a Mouse House accommodating sixteen cages of laboratory mice. He sets me up with a camera to videotape a cage of mice (I do not have the steadiest hand). The top view of the cage roams around the camera window. Its movement further exacerbated by the frantic activity of the caged mice.

___These mutant mice are a unique strain. Born hairless, they subsequently grow hair like any regular mouse. However, as they age, they begin to lose hair and become totally hairless again before they reach full maturity. Their hair loss problems are analogous to a human starting to lose his/her hair at age 13 and being completely bald by 18 years of age.

___The story of these hairless mice began in England in 1953. A budgie breeder was cleaning under a cage when he came upon a nest of mice. He was about to exterminate them with his boot when he saw a hairless mouse pop out from the nest. The man had never seen anything like this before, so he caught the hairless mouse and took it to a London university. The mouse was found to be the second living organism mutated by a particular virus. Every hairless mouse in the world originates from this specimen. David received his first hairless mutant through a friend at Geelong TAFE in 1978.

___The software that David uses for his research is Pinnacle Studio 9. It allows him to edit video clips in numerous ways, including cut and paste, screen transitions, titles, text, voice-overs, and music addition. Today, we experiment with these editing techniques, looking at the different screen transitions available, and we practise editing dialogue to accompany video clips.

___Today is by no means a representative of David’s usual day-to-day routine. He is a school teacher on holidays. He normally spends weekdays teaching, marking assignments, and preparing lessons. David usually works on his research after school and on weekends alongside his usual teaching duties.

___As you may have suspected, David is my father, and I have a personal insight into his research. The mutant mice he is using for his PhD were my pets whilst I was in high school, a responsibility I had to give up due to the time constraints of university. I used to sell the mice to a pet food store that would freeze the mice in blocks and sell them to snake breeders. The snake keepers did not like the hairless mice because they turn blue when frozen. The snake owners, thinking there was something wrong with them, would not feed them to their snakes.

___Alongside his interests in teaching and Genetics David breeds various kinds of unique chickens as a hobby. The chickens have characteristic traits, such as naked necks, backward facing feathers, and blue or green eggs. They are another story for another day. David relaxes by feeding his wondrous chickens, finding that it relieves him of his daily stress. Whatever David does, be it work or leisure, it showcases his appreciation of Science.

Genetics Intro | Forecasting Cancer | SARS Equation | The Building Blocks of Life | X-Mice