School: Minister Destiny Testimony Schools Track: Youth Class: Topic Library — Year 1 (Foundations) Presented by: Minister Destiny Marie Morgan, Muslim Ordained Minister
This lesson is educational information and is not legal advice. Laws vary by state. If you are in danger right now, call 911.
Before you start
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- If you are in danger right now: call 911. If you cannot talk out loud, text HOME to 741741 (Crisis Text Line) or call or text 988 any time, day or night.
- This unit is about science headlines — the wild ones about chips in hands and cloned babies. Some of them are true. Some are half true. Some are made to scare you or to get your click. You will learn a calm way to check, using the two most famous examples. Nothing here is scary on purpose, and nothing here teaches how to do any of the science. It teaches how to read about it.
The lesson
Part 1. The headline game — why tech news shouts
News and videos make money when you click, and fear and wonder earn the most clicks. So a small, true story — "fifty volunteers at one company chose a chip in their hand to open doors" — gets dressed up as "COMPANIES ARE CHIPPING WORKERS NOW." The facts did not change. The volume did.
Your defense is not to believe nothing. It is to ask four questions every time. One: what exactly happened — who, where, when? Two: is it a claim or a proof — did anyone check it, or did someone just announce it? Three: what does the thing actually do — in plain science, not movie science? Four: what do other careful sources say? Most viral tech stories fail question two or three.
Part 2. Chips in hands — the true story, calmer than the posts
Here is the real record, the same one the Adult school studies. Some adults, in a few places, have chosen a tiny chip, about the size of a grain of rice, placed under the skin of one hand. In Sweden, a few thousand people use them instead of key cards and gym passes. In Wisconsin in 2017, one company offered them to its workers: more than 50 said yes, the rest said no and kept their jobs and their key cards. In 2004, the U.S. food and drug agency cleared one chip for medical ID — a number that could point a hospital to a patient's record.
Now the science that the scary posts skip. These chips are passive: they have no battery. They sit silent until a reader is held about an inch away, answer with their number, and go silent again. That means the biggest claim you will see — "the chip can track you by GPS, everywhere you go" — is not true. Tracking needs power, a satellite receiver, and a transmitter. A passive chip has none of the three. It is a key, not a phone. Your phone is the thing that knows where you are; the chip knows nothing at all.
One more true fact for your pocket: in more than a dozen U.S. states, the law says nobody can be forced to get one of these chips — not by a boss, not by anyone. The laws were written to protect people's choice, in both directions: free to say yes, protected in saying no.
Part 3. Cloned babies — the announcement that never proved itself
In 2002, a company announced on television that it had cloned a human baby, a girl it called "Eve." It was enormous news. Then came question two from Part 1: where is the proof? The company never showed the baby. It never allowed DNA testing. Scientists asked, waited, and concluded there was no evidence it had happened at all. More than twenty years later, there is still no verified case of a cloned human being — not one, anywhere.
What has really been cloned? Animals. A sheep named Dolly, in Scotland in 1996 — the first animal cloned from an adult cell, and famous because it was so hard to do that hundreds of attempts produced one sheep. And in 2018, two monkeys in China, the first primates cloned the same way. Real science, real dates, real evidence you can check — and no cloned people.
Watch for one more trick while you practice: stories that say "cloning" when they mean gene editing — changing a gene, which is a different thing. In 2018 a scientist in China announced babies whose genes he had edited, and he was later sent to prison for breaking the rules. Serious, true, and punishable — and still not cloning. Headlines mix the words because "cloning" gets more clicks. Now you know the difference, and the mix-up will not work on you.
Part 4. Your four-question check — practice it here
Take the next scary tech post you see and run it, slowly:
- Who, where, when? A real story names real people, a real place, and a date. "Scientists somewhere say soon" is not a story yet.
- Claim or proof? Did someone announce it, or did independent checkers verify it? Announcements are free. Proof costs evidence — like the DNA test that never happened in Part 3.
- What does it actually do? Ask for the plain-science version. A chip with no battery cannot phone home. Anytime a post skips how the thing works, it is usually hiding that the claim cannot work.
- Who else careful is reporting it? Look for the same story from science organizations, universities, and official sources — and look for what they say is not known yet. Careful sources admit gaps. Viral posts never do.
If a post fails your check, you do not have to argue with it, share it "just in case," or lie awake about it. You can close it. That is not ignoring the world — that is reading it like someone the headline game cannot play.
Part 5. When a headline is about you — staying steady
Sometimes the post lands close: a video says your school, your town, or people your age will "be chipped" or tracked. Here is your steady plan. Run the four questions first — most of these posts fail by question two. If you are still worried, bring it to an adult you trust and check it together at an official source: a state legislature's website for laws, the food and drug agency's site for devices. Worry that sends you to a real source is useful worry. Worry that just circles is the headline doing its job on you, and you are allowed to put the phone down.
And one promise to keep for yourself: never share a frightening tech claim to friends "to warn them" before your four questions pass it. Sharing an unchecked scare is how the game spreads — and now you are one of the people who stops it.
Words to know — Reading Tech Headlines
- Passive implant — an implant with no battery or power source of its own; it stays silent until a reader held very close wakes it for a moment with its radio field.
- Microchip implant — a small electronic device, about the size of a grain of rice, placed under the skin, typically carrying a single identification number.
- Cloning — making a living thing that carries the same nuclear DNA as another living thing.
- Gene editing — changing a gene inside a living thing's DNA; different from cloning, which copies a whole set of DNA.
- Claim — something someone announces; a claim becomes trustworthy when independent checkers verify it with evidence.
- Verify — to check a claim against real evidence and careful, independent sources before believing or sharing it.
- Viral — spreading fast from person to person online; viral describes speed, not truth.
- Headline — the title of a story, written to earn your click; a headline is an advertisement for the story, not the story itself.
Myths vs facts — Reading Tech Headlines
- Myth: A chip in someone's hand can follow them everywhere by GPS. Fact: Passive chips have no battery, no GPS receiver, and no transmitter. A reader must be about an inch away. They cannot track anyone.
- Myth: A cloned baby was born in 2002. Fact: A company announced one and never produced any proof — no baby shown, no DNA test allowed. No cloned human has ever been verified.
- Myth: If a post has millions of views, it must be true. Fact: Views measure how a post makes people feel, not whether it is accurate. The four-question check measures truth; the view count measures the game.
- Myth: "Gene-edited babies" and "cloned babies" are the same story. Fact: Gene editing changes a gene; cloning copies a whole DNA set. The 2018 China case was gene editing — and the scientist was punished for it.
- Myth: Nobody protects people from being forced to get a chip. Fact: More than a dozen U.S. states have laws banning anyone from requiring an implant. The law protects the no.
Think it through — Reading Tech Headlines
The situation: A friend sends you a video at midnight: "URGENT — they cloned a baby and the government is hiding it, share before it's deleted!!" She is scared and wants you to pass it on.
Walk it through: (1) Who, where, when? The video names nobody checkable and no date — it fails Part 4's first question already. (2) Claim or proof? Part 3: the one famous "cloned baby" announcement, in 2002, never produced a baby or a DNA test in more than twenty years. An announcement is not proof. (3) What is actually known? Animals have been cloned (Dolly, 1996; two monkeys, 2018). A cloned human has never been verified. (4) Your move — Part 5: do not share it. Tell your friend what you checked and what is actually true, kindly — she was scared, not foolish; the video was built to do that. Then put the phone down. You just ran the whole unit in real life.
Cases & codes to study — Reading Tech Headlines
This youth unit teaches no court cases — the skill here is checking, and it does not need one. There is real law behind Part 2, and you can read its shortest sentence yourself: Wisconsin's law (Wis. Stat. § 146.25, 2006) says, in full, "No person may require an individual to undergo the implanting of a microchip." Twelve more states have laws like it. That is all the law you need for this unit: the protection is real, it is written down, and it guards your no.
Where to read the real thing, free: your state legislature's official website (for laws like Wisconsin's, at docs.legis.wisconsin.gov) and the FDA (fda.gov) for what devices are actually cleared to do.
Try this — Reading Tech Headlines
- ☐ Take one tech post you have seen recently and write its answers to the four questions from Part 4.
- ☐ Explain to a friend, in your own words, why a passive chip cannot track anyone — battery, receiver, transmitter.
- ☐ Find the 2002 "cloned baby" story from a careful source and note exactly what proof was missing.
- ☐ Practice the sentence you will use instead of sharing a scare: "I checked — here's what actually happened…"
Resources to keep — Reading Tech Headlines
- 911 — if you or someone else is in danger right now.
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration — fda.gov — the official source for what medical devices, including implants, are actually cleared to do.
- Your state legislature's official website — where real laws, including the chip-choice laws, can be read in the actual words.
- 988 (call or text) — if a scary post has left you anxious and you need support now.
- Crisis Text Line — text HOME to 741741 — support by text, any time.
What you earned / what's next — Reading Tech Headlines
✅ Reading Tech Headlines complete (quiz score 80% or higher): You can run the four-question check on any tech story, explain what passive chips really do and why they cannot track anyone, tell the true cloning record from the famous unverified announcement, separate cloning from gene editing, and answer a frightening post with checking instead of sharing.
Your certificate
Minister Destiny Testimony Schools Certificate of Completion — Reading Tech Headlines
This certificate is presented by Muslim Ordained Minister Destiny Marie Morgan
Awarded to: ______________________________ (write your name here after you download — your name is never collected or stored by this school)
Date completed: ______________
Congratulations. Headlines will keep shouting — that is their job. Yours is different now: check first, share second, and never let a post do your thinking. That is a skill for life. — Minister Destiny Marie Morgan
This is a certificate of educational completion from Minister Destiny Testimony Schools. It is not a state license, a government certification, or legal training for representing anyone.
What's next: Return to the Topic Library for your next Year 1 Foundations unit.
Sources
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration, via Code of Federal Regulations (law.cornell.edu) — 21 C.F.R. § 880.6300, implantable radiofrequency transponder system: passive transponder read by a scanner. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/21/880.6300
- Associated Press, via Phys.org (phys.org) — "Wisconsin retail tech company to offer microchip implants to employees" (July 25, 2017): voluntary offer, more than 50 employees, company said the chips do not use GPS. https://phys.org/news/2017-07-wisconsin-retail-tech-company-microchip.html
- Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh (ed.ac.uk) — Dolly the sheep record: born July 5, 1996, first mammal cloned from an adult cell. https://vet.ed.ac.uk/roslin/news-events/archive/2016/dolly-the-sheep-20th-anniversary-celebration
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (cas.ac.cn) — first primate clones by SCNT, Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, announced January 24, 2018. http://english.cas.ac.cn/Special_Reports/rd/2018/202210/t20221019_321824.shtml
- Wisconsin Legislature (docs.legis.wisconsin.gov) — 2005 Wisconsin Act 482 creating Wis. Stat. § 146.25 (2006): no person may require an individual to undergo the implanting of a microchip. https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov:443/2005/related/acts/482/1/_3?down=1
- Carnegie Council (carnegiecouncil.org) — "Preemptive Bans on Human Microchip Implants" (2024): thirteen-state list of laws banning mandatory implants. https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/media/article/preemptive-bans-human-microchip-implants
Your Progress — On Your Device Only
- Learning outcomes: On completing this unit, the student can:
- state and apply the four-question check (who/where/when; claim or proof; what it actually does; what careful sources say) to a technology story;
- explain what a passive chip implant is and why it cannot perform GPS tracking;
- recount the verified cloning record (Dolly 1996; macaques 2018) and identify the 2002 Clonaid announcement as an unverified claim;
- distinguish cloning from gene editing in a headline;
- state that state laws protect people from being required to receive an implant, and describe a steady personal response to a frightening post.
- Study time: Approximately 1 hour — an estimate covering reading, activities, and the test. Students move at their own pace.
- Assessment: A 10-question test drawn only from this unit's lesson. 80% or higher passes and earns the unit certificate. Answers are not shown; your score is saved only in your own browser on this device, and retakes are allowed.
- Level: Topic Library — Year 1 (Foundations) · Youth school · working rank on completion path: Freshman → Sophomore.
- Version: Version 1.0 — October 2026.
Minister Destiny Testimony Schools — Youth. Educational information only, not legal advice. Help lines: 911 · 988 (call or text) · Crisis Text Line (text HOME to 741741) · Childhelp 1-800-422-4453.