This blog post, written by the MiniPCR Team, describes the use of biotechnology kits and equipment (available from multiple suppliers) in the classroom to help students and learners understand the connection between observable phenotypic traits and underlying genotypes. These investigations can be approached at varying complexity, incorporating plant breeding and growing plants through their whole life cycle, depending on teaching goals. This post includes links to the necessary seeds and options for biotechnology equipment/materials to accomplish these investigations.

Part of the Fast Plants website, the "Grow" section offers complete instructions for preparing to grow, planting, tending, pollinating, and harvesting Wisconsin Fast Plants seeds. Instructions include text descriptions, photos, videos, and PDF instructions that can be downloaded, including a shopping list for buying your own planting mix and fertilizer. Whether you are looking to DIY your Fast Plants' lighting and growing systems or looking for links to purchase materials, this up-to-date resources is the right place to start.

This video is provided by Wisconsin Fast Plants and demonstrates how to plant Fast Plants seeds using the Bottle Growing System. The video gives an overview of the materials necessary to grow with this method, and also provides step-by-step instructions guiding the process. This recording runs for 04:21 minutes in length. Additional videos about planting with Fast Plants are available to view separately.

This video is provided by Wisconsin Fast Plants, and demonstrates how to plant Fast Plant seeds using a quad-planter and wicking reservoir system. The video gives an overview of the materials necessary to grow plants with this method, and also provides step-by-step instructions guiding the process. The use of quads in this growing method is teacher-friendly, and enables collaboration between students. This recording runs for 03:07 minutes in length. Additional videos about planting with Fast Plants are available to view separately.

This investigation begins with a phenomenon that is evidenced in most every produce aisle: Many of the vegetables that botanists classify as Brassica look and taste different. This investigation aligns with middle and high school Next Generation Science Standards as well as with agricultural science Plant Career Path Standards. Provided as an Open Source Lesson in Gather-Reason-Communicate format, this investigation supports teachers as students learn about the life cycle of flowering plants, how environmental and genetic factors influence an organisms's growth, how humans influence plants through plant breeding, and how scientists can use classification as a tool for understanding relatedness among organisms. This includes a lesson plan and supporting resources including videos, an interview, readings, and protocols.

Download this comprehensive, 60-page elementary unit that was co-developed by the Fast Plants Program and Emily Miller (ELA/science elementary science education specialist) who helped author the Next Generation Science Standards) as an exemplar for supporting three-dimensional learning. Developed in 2014, the lessons in this unit that fall during the time when Fast Plants are flowering and being pollinated are the same lessons that were extracted as a stand-alone Bee-ing an Engineer unit, also used as an NGSS-aligned exemplar.

This 5-page handout aims to help students and their adult mentors explore topics and questions about the natural world and/or Fast Plants growth and development that could be investigated through research and experimentation. The handout is intended to inspire scientific question development that can lead to either independent investigations (e.g. for special projects, science fairs, etc.) and small group or class investigations.

Download this complete unit of instructions to conduct an ecosystem inquiry. In this investigation, students have the opportunity to witness first-hand the dynamic relationship between Brassica butterflies and Wisconsin Fast Plants. Students are responsible for tending the butterflies and plants throughout the entire life cycles, while they explore and explain the changes that each organism goes through and the impact they have on each other. Complete kits are available from Carolina Biological for this investigation, or everything to grow Fast Plants and raise Brassica butterflies can be built or obtained locally, using the instructions available on the Fast Plants website.

This is a page on the Fast Plants website, describing the Non-Purple Stem Hairless variety of Fast Plants (Brassica rapa). This page includes suggestions for investigations and teaching applications using this seed variety.

This is a page on the Fast Plants website, describing the Non-Purple Stem, Yellow-Green Leaf variety of Fast Plants (Brassica rapa). This page includes suggestions for investigations and teaching applications using this seed variety.

This is a printable poster resource developed by a collaboration of educators in the POSOH Project for teaching about systems and scale. This poster correlates with an excerpt from the video Cosmic Voyage about systems and scale, narrated by Morgan Freeman. A debrief discussion of that video excerpt in the context of "What is Air?" is supported by a PowerPoint. Then, those concepts are applied(also supported by a PowerPoint) to the question: "What are plants at the molecular and atomic scale?"These additional resources are available free online (Cosmic Voyage excerpt, editable PowerPoints) and the lessons in which they were used are well described in the downloadable unit (which is a great unit about matter & energy transformations in the context of bioenergy): http://posohproject.org/grade-9-unit

This is a page on the Fast Plants website, describing the Petite variety of Fast Plants (Brassica rapa). This page includes suggestions for investigations and teaching applications using this seed variety.

Illustrated instructions for constructing and planting seed disks in the Fast Plants deli-container growing system. This is a stable growing system that is easy to construct for all age learners, and works well for growing Wisconsin Fast Plants. Made from recycled deli-containers, these growing systems can be cleaned and reused for multiple years.

This webpage from the Fast Plants website explains how to pollinate Fast Plants, including instructions for making bee sticks and pollination videos and tips.

This is a page on the Fast Plants website, describing the Polycot variety of Fast Plants (Brassica rapa). Two generations of the Polycot variety are available, each with a different % of expression of the polycot trait. This page includes suggestions for investigations and teaching applications using this seed variety, including use as a model organism in demonstrating artificial selection.

An article written for children, this reading explains the role of plants as producers. It is written at a grade 4-5 reading level, and it is a good supplement to the evidence that students can observe and record through experimentation with photosynthesis.

This is a page on the Fast Plants website, describing the Purple Stem, Hairy variety of Fast Plants (Brassica rapa). This page includes suggestions for investigations and teaching applications for using this seed variety.

This video is provided by Wisconsin Fast Plants, and introduces light intensity and its impact on plant growth. The video gives an overview of the effects of high light and low light intensities, and also includes a 20-day time lapse so the viewer can observe the effects that high and low light intensities have on the growth of the Fast Plants. This recording runs for 02:26 minutes in length. Additional videos about planting with Fast Plants are available to view separately.

This video is provided by Wisconsin Fast Plants, and introduces three recommended planting systems to use for planting Fast Plants seeds. The video gives an overview of the different methods: the Deli Container, the Wisconsin Fast Plants Watering System, and the Bottle Growing System. This recording runs for 02:13 minutes in length. Additional videos about planting with Fast Plants, and using these different growing systems, are available to view separately.

This Immersion Unit provides a coherent series of lessons designed to guide students in developing deep conceptual understanding that is aligned with the National standards, key science concepts, and essential features of classroom inquiry (as defined by the National Science Education Standards). The goal of this unit is to provide students with an opportunity to explore the interdependency of living and nonliving factors in an ecological system. Students investigate the process of decomposition and examine the role that decomposers and other organisms play in the transfer of energy and matter. The Unit's overarching concepts are: Organisms need matter and energy to live. Science knowledge advances through inquiry. This unit was developed through the large Math and Science Partnership project called System-wide Change for All Learners and Educators (SCALE), involving a collaboration among Los Angeles School District educators, California State University science and education faculty, and UW-Madison SCALE staff.