Garden Genetics

Garden Genetics: Teaching with Edible Plants presents ways of teaching core genetic concepts using familiar food plants. Through inquiry-based activities and experiments, students learn genetics and make connections to ecology, evolution, plant biology, and social sciences.

For example, to learn about Punnett’s squares, students taste variations in bitterness in cucumber seedlings and then design experiments investigating the surprising role that bitterness plays in protecting plants from insects. To learn about plant breeding, students re-enact a trial in which farmers sued seed companies to compensate for $1 billion in U.S. corn crop losses caused by genetic uniformity.

The two-part set (a teacher edition and companion student edition) is adaptable to biology students at all levels, including AP.

Garden Genetics was published by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and is available at 1-800-277-5300 or http://store.nsta.org.

Other books in the Cornell Scientific Inquiry Series
Assessing Toxic, Risk, Invasion Ecology, Decay and Renewal, and Watershed Dynamics also are available from NSTA. Click on the book covers below for more information.

Other Environmental Inquiry Publications
Visit our publication page to find out about other curricula, conference papers, videos, websites, and peer-reviewed journal articles that have been developed through the Environmental Inquiry program.