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| Dillon Howell and Kenneth Hall |
In the Friday, September 13, issue of the Winston-Salem Journal, reporter Arika Herron writes about
students from Wake
Forest University
working with middle and high school students in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County
School to learn more about plant genetics.
Here is an excerpt:
Over the course of two weeks,
college students will enter about 12 local public school classrooms to teach
basic science concepts through hands-on experimentation.
The younger students are taught the terms and principles of basic genetics by looking at tomatoes grown by Wake Forest students. A variety of heirloom tomatoes — all shapes, sizes and colors — demonstrate genetic variety, explained Gloria Muday, a Wake Forest biology professor.
“We want to give them a memorable experience,” Muday said. Working with tomatoes — something the students have likely encountered before — helps the genetics lesson become more relatable and thus more easily understood and retained.
For the experiment, students looked at just one of the many genetic traits that can be different between tomatoes: color.
Muday asked students Thursday at Mount Tabor High School to use what they would learn about genetics to solve a genetic mystery: how two red tomato “parents” can produce a green tomato offspring.
Wake Forest students walked their groups through such genetic basics as dominant and recessive traits, heterogeneous and homogeneous alleles, and the ways those different kinds of genes will express themselves.
“Normally we just watch and listen,” said Da’je Goodman, a sophomore at Mount Tabor. “This is hands-on. We got to taste things. I won’t forget it.”
Photos are by David Rolfe.
For the full story, go to: Winston-Salem JournalThe younger students are taught the terms and principles of basic genetics by looking at tomatoes grown by Wake Forest students. A variety of heirloom tomatoes — all shapes, sizes and colors — demonstrate genetic variety, explained Gloria Muday, a Wake Forest biology professor.
“We want to give them a memorable experience,” Muday said. Working with tomatoes — something the students have likely encountered before — helps the genetics lesson become more relatable and thus more easily understood and retained.
For the experiment, students looked at just one of the many genetic traits that can be different between tomatoes: color.
Muday asked students Thursday at Mount Tabor High School to use what they would learn about genetics to solve a genetic mystery: how two red tomato “parents” can produce a green tomato offspring.
Wake Forest students walked their groups through such genetic basics as dominant and recessive traits, heterogeneous and homogeneous alleles, and the ways those different kinds of genes will express themselves.
“Normally we just watch and listen,” said Da’je Goodman, a sophomore at Mount Tabor. “This is hands-on. We got to taste things. I won’t forget it.”
Photos are by David Rolfe.
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| Erica Barnes |
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