Check out information on the high school teacher workshops held as part of the project.
Funding for this project comes from the National Science Foundation, Plant Genome Program. Therefore, the workshop exercises reflected our interest in plant science and biological diversity. However, the principles were more fundamental.
We tried hard to develop exercises that are fun, informative, and also that did not require a large outlay in money, supplies or time.
Judging by the pictures of the participants (link), as well as the workshop evaluations, everyone had enjoyed the workshops.
We are now planning a variety of new initiatives. Check back to this page for details.
 Figure 1. Twelve highschool teachers from throughout Missouri participated in the workshop. |
 Figure 2. Among the exercise, the teachers assembled some low cost light fixtures that they can use to grown plants in their classrooms. |
 Figure 3. (file: inducing tumors) The teachers learned about plant biotechnology and the construction of transgenic plants. One exercise demonstrated the abilty of the bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens to induce tumors on plants. Scientists have modified this natural process to use it to introduce foreign genes into plants. |
 Figure 4. (file: pea nodulation) The teachers also learned about the ability of the Rhizobium species, soil bacteria, to infect legume roots and biologically fix nitrogen from the air. The exercise should allow the teachers to reproduce this in the classroom for their own teachers. Shown are a few teachers looking at nodules formed on pea roots. |