Have you ever wondered why your arms grow out of your shoulders and not out of somewhere else?  Well the answer to these questions is epigenetics. So what is epigenetics? It is the study of how behaviors and the environment impact the expression of genes, but not the genetic sequence itself. So how is this done? The influence of epigenetics can occur via the following mechanisms. DNA methylation and histone modification. It can also occur through other mechanisms, but today we'll just explore these two. And these processes are very natural and normal and are probably going on in your body right now. They are there to help control which genes are expressed and which ones aren't in every cell. So let's talk about DNA methylation. This is the process in which methyl groups are added to the nucleotide bases of DNA and below in this table there is an example. If you were to do some physical exercise you expose your muscle cells to a certain level of stress and this in turn leads to DNA methylation which regulates genes involved in production of more muscle fibers. This is an example of how a behavior and an environment can change the way that a gene is expressed. Histone modification however is where acetyl or methyl groups are added to the histones of chromatin and remember that histones are proteins around which chromatin are wrapped. And again in this table there is an example. If you were to drink some green tea you expose some of your cells to EGCG and this is a chemical found in green tea. And this chemical leads to the acetylation of some histones making tumor suppressor genes more accessible for transcription and these genes are involved in preventing the development of tumors. So you may be asking how has gene expression changed? As said before acetylation and methylation do not change DNA sequences themselves rather they either silence or promote gene activity by adding a chemical group to a sequence or a histone and to the right we can see the chemical structure of a methyl group. Now let's talk about the relationship between epigenetics and disease because things can go wrong with epigenetic changes that is genes can be incorrectly turned on or turned off. So environmental factors can make an individual more susceptible to disease. For instance, viral molecules can weaken the immune system by changing histones and this allows it to replicate and live with it inside its host. Another example is that increased DNA methylation of specific genes can result in decreased expression of BRCA1 and this is a gene that prevents breast cancer. So essentially increased DNA methylation of specific genes can contribute to breast cancer. In summary, epigenetics is a study of how behaviors and the environment can change genes. We learned about two mechanisms in which genes can be regulated. There's DNA methylation, the process in which methyl groups are added to nucleotide bases, and histone modification where acetyl or methyl groups are added to histones.


about the round table. Oh yeah, how did you find the round table? I found it very interesting. It would have been more interesting if we had more of a range of people because five of the people were from the same division. But even at that, there were so many ideas that were put forward that it was really informative because we see it all from a different light. So from the rural divisions, which are smaller communities that we're dealing with, they have different problems and different ways of looking at it than the bigger communities like Calgary and Edmonton. Most of them, well, all of them said, we need to keep it going because we have these conversations going now. And we're finding that we're meeting needs for each other. We can answer each other's questions. And I found that everybody had a voice as we were going around, even the elders. So when we were at one table and Lewis wanted to share smudging and the importance of it and the importance that we look at traditions of the regions that we live in and of the people that we deal with. So, and that was resonated throughout about the traditions and how we really have to give the voice and listen to what they're saying. I've seen growth in a lot of the attitudes. We're not, we're opening up the narrow-minded. There's more conversation now when I, especially when I come into the school, there's more conversation about what can we do? How can we do it better? Where can I go to find out more information? And we're getting more of our teachers looking at that as professional development. So they're looking to the future. So, and our biggest question is, is where, how are we going to continue? How are we going to move forward? And so they're always saying, okay, what can we do next year? Because a lot of them don't wanna just do get a hooked answer in or whatever. They want to really infuse it with what they're doing, make it part of the program, entire program of studies rather than just a one-off or just social studies. We were trying to think of a way to meet the needs of the teachers at Ecole d'Armando. And one of the ways that we discussed is the teachers hadn't had a chance to voice what they knew already and what they needed to move forward. So, we came up with a plan. So, Solange came in for the one day, or two days I should say, and I've met with their classes and did FNMI activities with their classes while they were able to meet one-on-one with Solange. And she, it gave that safe and trust situation where it was a one-on-one, it wasn't shared outside of that. And those teachers came in my way with a really positive attitude about, and really excited about their next step in it. And the next step was to decide what unit they wanted to do, so lessons they wanted to do in their classes and how they could have that time to collaborate because that time is so important. And the school provided substitutes to go in so that the teachers could meet as a team and collaboratively plan using the resources and Solange's guidance as they were doing the project. And so then they took it back into their classes and really excited about talking to me afterwards about how it works so well for them. And now they've got the idea that they can move forward with it. And several of them have even come up because we're doing the Seven Grandfather Teaching so they came to a resource workshop and they're just so excited that they can infuse this. It's not teaching it as a one-off, it's let's do this throughout our curriculum. So they're really excited about moving forward. The only thing that they say is there's so much and it was really hard to narrow it down. This is what I want to start at because they'd like to use all of it. But you know, we always have to have a jumping off in the starting point and that's where they were. And I think this next year, as we move forward with it, they're excited about moving forward. Part of it, it's going to be proud to be me in CESD and proud to be me is because it's really important that they take pride in who they are and where they came from and in the traditions that they need to have involved within their learning environment. So we're bringing in keynote speakers who are going to talk about being successful and moving forward and that everyone needs to set their goals. But then we're also including some of the traditional learnings because one of the things that the kids said is we don't know enough about our traditions. It's not taught in the school and we don't have our grandparents around to learn it from. So we are bringing in people to talk about the traditions. We're bringing in people to talk about the residential schools. So there's a little bit for everyone and because it's from grade five to 12 we're trying to hit subjects and things like that that really meet their needs. So more of the traditional like beading, weaving, things like that are for the younger students and more of the deeper thought processes are with the older students. So what we did, our steering community talks about a lot of things about what we can do within our division to really promote people thinking about the indigenous education part of our curriculum. And we know that some of our students went out to like Dreamcatchers and things like that but it's very expensive to go out. So we figured if we pooled all the money that we would use sending out all of our students and did our conference at a facility within our division we would be able to really meet the needs of the students because there'd be no cost to the students to come. It would be covered by the monies we would have already been sending out with them. And they're going away with that pride and they're going away with more knowledge and also they become the voice in their schools to say, hey, can we do this in our own school? Can we have smudging in our school? Can we, so they're going to go back with a lot of questions for their teachers, for their administrators to say, yeah, we need to continue this, not just as a one day thing, but continue it so that we can be proud of who we are. It's encouraged me a lot to be a part of the program and I got the chance to see how narrow-minded people can be but with the right attitude with empowering them to think differently, I see a lot of change.


So here's the rig I've been using to shoot these videos exactly where I've been using it I've got an L bracket very cheap on the internet. This one is too cold shoes one at the back one on top I've got the Femi. I'm sorry. I've got the Comica track shot mounted on top I'm running the TRRS cable right in the front and this is in forward mode if it's in selfie mode I just swiveled it around and you can see the monitor the Femi there is recording in front of me and This is the ambient traffic noise we had in the background So I think it's a decent setup it works in combination as I said if there were Gain settings on the Femi it would make this a bit easier but as a kind of handheld unit it's really easy to grip and As I've said before the Comica track shot the arms are super super shaky Especially if you've had a bit too much coffee to drink So you have to just kind of be extra stable, but they're just gonna be bouncing around anyway And then in selfie mode is just a case of turning it this way and hoping that you have the Comica Arms mounted high enough that they're not gonna get in the frame because it is a very wide angle camera the Femi PAM 2