- Agricultural use for animal feed or ethanol
- Agricultural use for human consumption
- Medical uses (pharmaceutical and gene therapy)
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
GMO Debate
Take some time and read and look through the Livebinder composed for this (I'll try to add new sites as we find them). Determine your opinion of the use of GMOs for several situations.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Teaching method
The second semester of AP Biology I have attempted to use a different method of material delivery (based on this Discovery Magazine article, and also the material in this earlier post). My attempt has been to lecture very little, provide the resources and materials so students can research their own information, and to provide rigorous and relevant assignments so students can investigate the content. I have tried to make myself available to answer questions in class while students are working.
Now it's your turn to teach me. What were the positives of this approach?
What were the negatives of this approach?
How would you improve the assignments?
Have you done your part in preparing for class?
Would this be a method in which you would like this class to continue?
I truly appreciate your comments on this, if you would like to keep them anonymous I certainly understand it as I hope you'll be free in pointing out where I can improve. I hope that as you comment you will also look at the other comments your classmates have added and reflect upon them (even disagree if you must) and add that information as well.
Now it's your turn to teach me. What were the positives of this approach?
What were the negatives of this approach?
How would you improve the assignments?
Have you done your part in preparing for class?
Would this be a method in which you would like this class to continue?
I truly appreciate your comments on this, if you would like to keep them anonymous I certainly understand it as I hope you'll be free in pointing out where I can improve. I hope that as you comment you will also look at the other comments your classmates have added and reflect upon them (even disagree if you must) and add that information as well.
Monday, January 23, 2012
This one hits close to home!
National Geographic has an article entitled "Raiding the Bread Basket". It's about how agriculture has affected the Mississippi River Basin.
You wake up to cereal made from midwestern corn. You slip on cotton clothes, get into a vehicle fueled partly by ethanol and dine later on chicken and rice—all made possible by crops from the Mississippi River Basin, a vast area that stretches from Montana to New York and drains all or parts of 31 states.
All told, it's among the most productive farming regions in the world. Trouble is, fertilizer that flows from fields (and cities) takes a toll on local waters and eventually reaches the Mississippi River and the economically important fisheries of the Gulf of Mexico...
Read it and tell me what you think, especially about their ideas for change.
Make sure you identify the crop rotation strategies we covered in 1st semester!
You wake up to cereal made from midwestern corn. You slip on cotton clothes, get into a vehicle fueled partly by ethanol and dine later on chicken and rice—all made possible by crops from the Mississippi River Basin, a vast area that stretches from Montana to New York and drains all or parts of 31 states.
All told, it's among the most productive farming regions in the world. Trouble is, fertilizer that flows from fields (and cities) takes a toll on local waters and eventually reaches the Mississippi River and the economically important fisheries of the Gulf of Mexico...
Read it and tell me what you think, especially about their ideas for change.
Make sure you identify the crop rotation strategies we covered in 1st semester!
When is an identical twin, not identical?
Epigenetics is an expansion of the classic Mendelian genetics. I have taught that identical twins have the same DNA, and they do, but it doesn't always express itself in the same way. This article is a good beginning to the idea of epigenetics. Scientists have researched...
a series of experiments that caused nematodes raised under the same environmental conditions to experience dramatically different lifespans. Some individuals were exceptionally long-lived, and their descendants, through three generations, also enjoyed long lives. Clearly, the longevity advantage was inherited. And yet, the worms, both short- and long-lived, were genetically identical.
Science News says... longevity may be because they inherited epigenetic marks — chemical tags on their DNA or DNA-associated proteins called histones — that change gene activity without changing the genes themselves.
This animation does an excellent job of showing what epigenetics is and how it affects genes.
Comments can be quite varied on this one. Explain how epigenetics might be used in medicine, agriculture, pharmaceutical, or other industries. Are there any drawback to learning more about this? How does this affect our knowledge of genetics?
a series of experiments that caused nematodes raised under the same environmental conditions to experience dramatically different lifespans. Some individuals were exceptionally long-lived, and their descendants, through three generations, also enjoyed long lives. Clearly, the longevity advantage was inherited. And yet, the worms, both short- and long-lived, were genetically identical.
Science News says... longevity may be because they inherited epigenetic marks — chemical tags on their DNA or DNA-associated proteins called histones — that change gene activity without changing the genes themselves.
This animation does an excellent job of showing what epigenetics is and how it affects genes.
Comments can be quite varied on this one. Explain how epigenetics might be used in medicine, agriculture, pharmaceutical, or other industries. Are there any drawback to learning more about this? How does this affect our knowledge of genetics?
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Antiobiotics - less use on farms?
This article in Scientific American goes along with the series of links I blogged about earlier about antibiotic resistance and what is being done to combat this medical issue. It seems that the FDA is limiting the usage of antibiotics that can be used on farms.
In industrial farming, antimicrobials are commonly given to farm animals to treat infections, and prophylactically to prevent disease or spur growth. But there is growing concern that excessive use on farms is helping to breed antibiotic-resistant microbes, from Salmonella to Escherichia coli, which are harder to treat when they infect people.
The new rules, to come into effect on April 5, restrict veterinary surgeons to using the two cephalosporin drugs specifically approved for food-producing animals -- ceftiofur and cephapirin -- and ban prophylactic use.
What do you think of this new policy? Is this going to be a positive for human health or will it cause more problems? What issues could this pose to the farms that use antibiotics on a regular basis?
In industrial farming, antimicrobials are commonly given to farm animals to treat infections, and prophylactically to prevent disease or spur growth. But there is growing concern that excessive use on farms is helping to breed antibiotic-resistant microbes, from Salmonella to Escherichia coli, which are harder to treat when they infect people.
The new rules, to come into effect on April 5, restrict veterinary surgeons to using the two cephalosporin drugs specifically approved for food-producing animals -- ceftiofur and cephapirin -- and ban prophylactic use.
What do you think of this new policy? Is this going to be a positive for human health or will it cause more problems? What issues could this pose to the farms that use antibiotics on a regular basis?
Zombie parasites in honeybees? Link to CCD?
In a previous post I referenced Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD, an unexplained phenomenon in which bees are leaving their hives and dying in great numbers. It has had a tremendous affect on the honeybee population of the United States.
One hypothesis backed up by some newly published research documents that there are parasitic flies that are using honeybees as their host. As the Discover magazine article states...
Andrew Core from San Francisco State University has a possible answer, and a new suspect for CCD. He has shown that a parasitic fly, usually known for attacking bumblebees, also targets honeybees. The fly, Apocephalus borealis, lays up to a dozen eggs in bee workers. Its grubs eventually eat the bees from the inside-out. And the infected workers, for whatever reason, abandon their hives to die.
These parasites have been referred to as "Zombie" fly parasites because they affect the behavior of the bees. The picture below taken from both articles linked shows a larval stage emerging from neck of the honeybee.
As you comment determine what affect this could have on the ecosystems in which bees have a niche. Also comment upon whether the data actually shows a connection to these parasites and CCD, or if they are merely happening to the same organisms
One hypothesis backed up by some newly published research documents that there are parasitic flies that are using honeybees as their host. As the Discover magazine article states...
Andrew Core from San Francisco State University has a possible answer, and a new suspect for CCD. He has shown that a parasitic fly, usually known for attacking bumblebees, also targets honeybees. The fly, Apocephalus borealis, lays up to a dozen eggs in bee workers. Its grubs eventually eat the bees from the inside-out. And the infected workers, for whatever reason, abandon their hives to die.
These parasites have been referred to as "Zombie" fly parasites because they affect the behavior of the bees. The picture below taken from both articles linked shows a larval stage emerging from neck of the honeybee.
As you comment determine what affect this could have on the ecosystems in which bees have a niche. Also comment upon whether the data actually shows a connection to these parasites and CCD, or if they are merely happening to the same organisms
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