Teach Engineering: Tell Me the Odds (Of Cancer)

A seven-lesson unit where students learn the concepts of refraction and interference in order to solve this engineering challenge: In 2013, actress Angelina Jolie underwent a double mastectomy, not because she had been diagnosed with breast cancer, but merely to lower her cancer risk. But what if she never inherited the genes that are linked to breast cancer and endured surgery unnecessarily? Can we create a new method of assessing people's genetic risks of breast cancer that is both efficient and cost-effective?