Build a Super Plant! Outreach activity
Activities, Education0 Comments
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This activity is meant to illustrate the concept of the “random” nature of allele inheritance and the resulting phenotypes. In this activity, colored balls that are selected randomly from a bingo cage represent the alleles. These colors correspond with phenotypes for specific traits. This activity…
Plants release chemical weapons and deploy insect armies in their defence
Education, GP ArticlesFrom The Conversation, by Angela White.
Accessible article about how plants defend themselves from herbivore.
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Report: Millions at risk as severe drought hits Ethiopia (September 2015)
Education, GP ArticlesThe California drought gets headlines, but few in California will go hungry. There's a different situation in Ethiopia, also dealing with a severe drought.
Source: Aljazeera, September 5, 2015
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California citrus farmers pull up trees, dig reservoirs to survive drought (Sept 2015)
Education, GP Articles"California leads the nation in production of fruits and vegetables, its nearly 80,000 farms and ranches taking in total revenues of $46.4 billion in 2013, state data show.
But the relatively dry parts of the state where much of its farming is rely on irrigation rather than rainwater, and environmental…
As drought destroys maize, Zimbabwe tries out new staples
Education, GP ArticlesJAMBEZI, Zimbabwe, Sept 11 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - For more than 20 years, Dalarex Ncube grew maize in arid Jambezi District, one of Zimbabwe's driest regions, and his family ate maize porridge, the national staple.
But seven years ago, he began switching to growing sorghum and millet - both…
New York Times profile of Nobel Laureate Tu Youyou, discoverer of artemisinin
Education, GP ArticlesWhat better advertisement for plant sciences than an important drug developed from plants, and recognition of that achievement by a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine?
Source: New York Times, October 6, 2015
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Weed to Wonder: Teosinite to Corn (e-book/app)
Education, GP ArticlesThe story of how humans changed corn and how corn changed human history. Topics include domestication, hybrid vigor, genome sequencing, jumping genes, and biofortification.
The Weed to Wonder site is a flexible "e-book" that can be viewed as a website, an app, or a printable PDF.
The site features…
NPR: An Arbor Embolism? Why Trees Die In Drought
Education, GP ArticlesNPR (National Public Radio) story from 2012 discusses how drought kills trees.
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The hottest place on Earth is covered in wildflowers after heavy autumn rain (Washington Post w/ Video)
Education, GP ArticlesIn February 2016, Death Valley in California (the place where the hottest temperature ever was recorded) had a "superbloom" as millions of seeds of desert ephemeral plants germinated, leading to a massive floral bloom. See pictures and a video of this once-in-a-decade event.
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