Brassicas and Butterflies: Hands-on Activities with Potential for Developing Space Flight Experiments for Students

摘要

NASA Fundamental Biology Outreach (http://weboflife.arc.nasa.gov/) in collaboration with The Wisconsin Fast Plants Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (http://www.fastplants.org/) is sponsoring a project to provide activities centered on Brassica rapa plants and Brassica butterflies for teachers and students. This project, called Brassicas and Butterflies was designed to provide teachers and students with specific activities that could be conducted easily in a classroom and yet help them to design experiments to be conducted in space as well. The growth and development of the Brassica plant and the butterfly are parallel, demonstrating the process of coevolution. The plant germinates in less than two days and begins to flower in about two weeks. Following pollination, the plant produces seed in a total of thirty-five days. The butterfly hatches within a week, the larvae feed on Brassica plants and pupate in about two weeks. The butterfly pollinates the flowers and each of the organisms provides benefits for the other in a mutualistic relationship. A teacher workshop was held in November 2001 with additional workshops targeted for 2002. The intent is that students will conduct the research in the classroom and develop experiments for the NASA Student Involvement Program (http://education.nasa.gov/nsip/) to be conducted in space.