PARTNERSHIP FOR RESEARCH & EDUCATION IN PLANTS

弗吉尼亚理工大学Fralin生物技术中心与大学科学家和高中生物学教师合作，寻求支持，以发展(第一阶段)和传播(第二阶段)植物研究与教育伙伴关系(PREP)。Prep是应高中生和他们的老师的要求而发起的，他们希望有机会收集“真正的”科学数据，科学家们需要额外的帮助来研究植物界的“白老鼠”--拟南芥。为了更好地了解植物生物学，科学家们已经对拟南芥基因组进行了测序。现在基因组已经测序，重点是系统地识别大约29,000个基因的功能。一种正在采取的方法是敲除每个基因，以确定其在生长中的作用， 植物的发育和生理。这一努力正在创造大量的突变植物，现在必须对其进行检查，以确定每个基因的功能。 在Prep中，科学家向学生提供野生型和敲除突变种子以及实验技术，因为学生们自己设计和进行实验，以研究野生型植物和以前未表征的突变体之间的差异。然后，学生们在海报会议和实验室报告中与预备科学家分享他们的发现。这一伙伴关系将继续发挥协作作用，实现以下目标：为高中生物教师、学生和科学家之间的可持续伙伴关系创建一个框架；共享生物学知识和研究；为学生提供收集、分析、得出结论和共享真实数据的机会；以及增加关于遗传学、基因组学和生理学的数据，特别是拟南芥的数据。 我们建议通过以下方式加强和扩大PREP：在研究野生型和突变型拟南芥植物的背景下，提高学生对其他基于标准的生物学概念(遗传和进化，以及与生物技术相关的伦理、法律和社会问题)的理解；增加PREP科学家合作伙伴的数量；利用基于网络的资源和技术加强地理上分离的PREP合作伙伴之间的沟通；通过区域领导中心和基于网络的方法向全国受众传播PREP；以及评估和描述PREP对 参与的老师、学生和科学家。

The Fralin Biotechnology Center at Virginia Tech, in collaboration with university-based scientists and high school biology teachers, seeks support for developing (Phase I) and disseminating (Phase II) the Partnership for Research & Education in Plants (PREP). PREP was initiated at the request of high school students and their teachers, who wanted opportunities to collect 'real' science data, and scientists, who needed extra help in studying the 'white mouse' of the plant world, Arabidopsis thaliana. In an effort to better understand plant biology, scientists have sequenced the Arabidopsis genome. Now that the genome has been sequenced, emphasis is being placed on systematically identifying the function of an estimated 29,000 genes. One approach being taken is 'knocking out' each gene to determine its role in the growth, development, and physiology of the plant. This effort is creating an abundance of mutant plants, which must now be examined to determine each gene's function. In PREP, scientists provide wild-type and knock-out mutant seeds as well as experimental know-how to students as the students themselves design and conduct experiments to study the differences between wildtype plants and the previously uncharacterized mutants. Students then share their findings with PREP scientists at poster sessions and in lab reports. This partnership will continue to function as a collaboration with the following goals: to create a framework for sustainable partnerships between high school biology teachers, their students, and scientists; to share knowledge and research about biology; to provide students with opportunities to collect, analyze, draw conclusions about, and share real data; and to add to the body of data about genetics, genomics, and physiology, specifically of Arabidopsis thaliana. We propose to enhance and expand PREP in the following ways: improve student understanding of additional standards-based biology concepts (heredity and evolution, as well as ethical, legal, and social issues related to biotechnology) in the context of investigating wild-type and mutant Arabidopsis plants; increase the number of PREP scientist partners; enhance communication between geographically-separated PREP partners using web-based resources and technologies; disseminate PREP to a national audience via regional leadership centers and web-based approaches; and assess and describe the impact of PREP on participating teachers, students, and scientists.