Kit includes: Standard Fast Plants® Seed Supplies for Planting a Second Generation All Other Planting Materials Instructions

Rapid-Growing Wisconsin Fast Plants® Make Classroom Genetics Studies Possible! Wisconsin Fast Plants® are a wonderful model plant genetics organism for the classroom. The plants have several traits that make them attractive: A wide variety of mutant seed is available They are closely related to many food crops produced in the United States, making them especially relevant They cannot self-pollinate, so it is easy to carry out controlled crosses in the classroom The yhave clearly visible mutations; stem color, plant height, and more They have a 35- to 40- day life cycle that lets you start with F1 seed and carry it to the F2 generation in a short time span

Grade 6-College. For a class of 32 students. This open-ended experiment utilizes inquiry and cooperative learning. The activities can be used to study the process of science, natural selection, plant breeding, genetics, plant growth, and reproduction.

Starting with the standard Wisconsin Fast Plants® seed stock, students use a quick and simple method to count leaf hairs and select the hairiest plants to produce seed for the next generation. Comparison of the average number and distribution of leaf hairs in both generations enables students to describe the pattern of inheritance for hairiness and to test a hypothesis.

Experiment time varies - typically 45 days to grow and evaluate 2 generations. Complete Kit Contents are listed in the More Information tab.