|
Maize lends itself extremely well for use as an educational tool, and particularly to an integrated education approach. Scientifically, maize is one of the best examples of crop domestication and an excellent visual example of genetic inheritance. Due to its large size and fast growth, it is a good demonstration of the plant life cycle, and is also a good example of agricultural techniques such as intercropping. Maize can be used in education on many levels: while an elementary school child can learn about food and plants from growing maize in the school garden, a college student can use maize to study transposons. Furthermore, maize has played an important role throughout history and in many cultures, most particularly that of Native American and Meso-American peoples (Viola and Margolis, 1991). Finally, Barbara McClintock's fame as a woman scientist makes maize a good example of the impact of women in science.
Thus, maize has the potential to be a useful educational tool integrating many disciplines and key concepts. While there are several educational web sites about maize, including the National Corn Growers Association Education site, and one of our project team member's, the Buckler lab site, many students do not have ready access to a computer, or the time or inclination to read through information in a text format. This project will literally bring the many-faceted story of maize to the students. Mobile "story boards" have been developed which will be placed in the hallway display cases of selected middle-high schools near each of the PIs home institutions, but only in either very rural areas, or in high minority/resource poor areas. Simple pictorials and brief text boxes will explain the domestication of maize both from a historical and a genetics perspective. These story boards will be made in sections that are easy to assemble and disassemble, making it possible to rotate the boards through a large number of schools. To introduce the story board a presentation will be arranged at each school that will also include information about career opportunities available in plant genomics related fields, not only giving the students educational information but also introducing them to real scientists and the option of science as a career.
More Resources
|
