Can aging be genetic?

Project #1573 on iSENSEProject.org

This activity may be a thought-provoking one after students have explored the following two standards through hands-on activities. Looking at data on aging populations through the decades, students can contemplate some of the reasons that specific subgroups of the total population of the US are increasing at different rates…..Can one of them be genetic? Could there be an aging gene yet to be identified?  

• MS-LS3-3(MA). Communicate through writing and in diagrams that chromosomes contain many distinct genes, and that each chromosome pair contains two alleles that can be the same or different from each other. Illustrate that each gene holds the instructions for the production of specific proteins, which in turn affects the traits of an individual.

• MS-LS3-4(MA). Develop and use a model to show that in sexually reproducing organisms individuals have two of each chromosome, and hence two alleles of each gene, one acquired (randomly) from each parent.

Guiding Questions:

1. Which two aging populations grew the largest (in percentage) from 1900 until the projected year 2050? (Hint: Use the default scatterplot visualization.)
   

2. Which age group is predicted to have the largest chunk of the population by 2050?

3. Which age group over 60 has had the most consistent growth over the decades?

4. According to the saved bar graph visualization, the population of people 85 and older will have increased over twenty-fold from 1900 to 2050. What do you think this can be credited to?

Statistics were from the Census reports generated by the US Department of Health and Human Services Administration on Aging:

http://www.aoa.acl.gov/Aging_Statistics/Census_Population/Index.aspx