Global Awareness - Twilley

For the Global Awareness Collaborative Project assignment, I chose the BrachyBio Project through Cornel’s University’s Boyce Thompson Institute.  Mutations of the Brachypodium plant, an analogue for sustainable food and fuel sources, are studied through a distributed research network comprised of middle and high school classrooms across the country.  My students report their findings to Cornell’s online research community.  This is an emerging trend called Citizen Science, or Crowdsourcing. 

The objective of my STEM class is to develop each students understanding of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math interrelated concepts through a hands-on, project based, inquiry approach to instruction leading students to: increased self-confidence in STEM content; understand connections between school concepts and meaningful real-world applications; interact with role models and mentors from the fields of engineering, science and math; increase awareness of science and math related careers; and develop/hone interpersonal skills needed for collaborative problem solving.  My philosophy has been to expose students to the problems facing their generation. 

For this activity, my students will grow their very own and unique 'mutant family' from irradiated seeds of the brachypodium plant, provided by the Boyce Thompson Institute of Cornell University.  Students will watch the plants grow, observing phenotypic changes, recording this data and uploading it to the projects database.  Students will connect with other classrooms from all over the world, and research scientists who will use the student data for their own lab work.  The academic objective is to help students increase their understanding of gene function in plants.  The communal objective is to foster a sense of belonging to a world community, where problem solvers from all backgrounds can work together to solve tomorrow's challenges.