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Use of Biotechnology in Selecting the Right Plants

Students will simulate how a type of biotechnology called Marker Assisted Selection (MAS) is used to identify crop plants that have desirable traits such as sweet tasting fruit or natural resistance to a pest or disease.

Grades
6 – 8
Estimated Time
50 minutes
Updated
January 31, 2024
3d DNA helix structure
Image: jes2ufoto/iStock

Background

Lesson Activities

Credits

Author

Mandy Garner | California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom

Acknowledgements

The development of this lesson was funded in 2014 by Monsanto Fund to provide teachers with lessons in science and biotechnology that meet Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards

Executive Director: Judy Culbertson
Layout and Design: Nina Danner

Standards

National Content Area Standards

  • Career & Technical Education
    • AFNR (Grades 6-8): Biotechnology Systems Career Pathway
      • BS.03.04: Apply biotechnology principles, techniques and processes to enhance plant and animal care and production (e.g., selective breeding, pharmaceuticals, biodiversity, etc.).
  • Science
    • MS-LS1: From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
      • MS-LS1-5: Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how environmental and genetic factors influence the growth of organisms.
    • MS-LS3 : Heredity: Inheritance and Variations of Traits
      • MS-LS3-2: Develop and use a model to describe why asexual reproduction results in offspring with identical genetic information and sexual reproduction results in offspring with genetic variation.
    • MS-LS4: Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
      • MS-LS4-5: Gather and synthesize information about technologies that have changed the way humans influence the inheritance of desired traits in organisms.