IB Biology Students Read and Reflect about "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks".

Students in IB Biology Year 1 at New Hampton School have been reading the novel, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot. Each student has been assigned a character from the book. They have been using Twitter so their character's voice can come to life. You may check out the Twitter feed to the right of this page, or go to Twitter and follow #NHSHenrietta.

If you haven't read "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" the Publisher's Summary will give you an idea what the story is about.

"Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer whose cancer cells – taken without her knowledge – became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first ‘immortal’ human tissue grown in culture, HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the effects of the atom bomb; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta herself remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave

Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey in search of Henrietta's story, from the ‘coloured’ ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live, and struggle with the legacy of her cells. Full of warmth and questing intelligence, astonishing in scope and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences."

©2009 Rebecca Skloot (P)2010 Random House, inc

Students will also be blogging here. Every character will have their own page. Through the use of quotes, they were asked to write a comprehensive and descriptive narrative of their character describing who they are and their viewpoints. They have also been asked to reflect on the following quote based on how their character might react to it:

"I think people are morally obligated to allow their bits and pieces to be used to advance knowledge to help others. Since everybody benefits, everybody can accept the small risks of having their tissue scraps used in research." -David Korn, Harvard University