Maize: a theme in agriculture, genetics and environment
by Shawn Kuykendall
Overall Learning Objective:
This module is designed to give students an understanding of the environment around them and how humans are affecting it. It uses current issues in science to show advancements in agriculture and it also incorporates knowledge that was once considered primitive by western culture and is just recently being developed by modern societies. Case studies and historical references broaden the students understanding of history and who was involved in shaping modern agriculture and genetics.
The curriculum material is thematic and episodic -- intended to be used at appropriate times throughout a standard biology course.
ecology module -- Using corn as a sample food, contrasts different methods of farming in two different cultures: subsistence maize farming in Mexico and large scale farming in the U.S. Also includes info on nutrition, genetic history of modern "corn," origins of cultivation, nitrogen cycle (fertilizers, organic farming and nitrate pollution), and parasite-host interactions, pesticides and ethics
genetics module: Using maize as a sample organism, students learn about selective breeding techniques for plants, hybrid plants, basic genetic elements within maize and genetically modified plants. Includes standard concepts of inheritance, epistasis and transposable genetic elements, illustrated through examples in maize; economics of hybrid corn; ethics of GM foods.
Download as Word doc (97kb).
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