Classroom teaching in genetics and birth defects: the Nottingham experience.

Advances in genetics and their implications for disease prevention make it important that there should be more emphasis on the teaching of human genetics in our schools. This is likely to require cooperation between educationalists and interested medical staff and two such ventures, one in North America and the other in Nottinghamshire, are described. The latter, involving school teachers, the Department of Health Education, and the staff of the Clinical Genetic Service appears to meet a need, and the teaching material developed is in use in secondary schools throughout the county. The teaching package contains simple examples of disease inheritance, brief information about antenatal diagnosis and genetic counselling, and some class exercises designed to encourage discussion on handicap and its effects on the family.