GMOs: What’s the Deal?

Warmup What do YOU think a GMO is? – List here

Objective The students will: analyze the impact of GMOs on modern day society using a PowerPoint, articles, and create posters

What does GMO mean? G enetically M odified O rganism

Huh? A genetically modified organism is an organism whose genetic material has been changed using genetic engineering techniques, such as: – Crops – Animals – Bacteria – Viruses

How? Scientists insert, mutate, or delete genes from the organism to make it more resistant to decay, improve the number of organisms produced, or to fix/prevent health issues

When? Humans have been domesticating plants and animals since around 12,000 BCE – Domestication = the taming and breeding of wild species (plants and animals) for specific genetic traits

When? Part 2 Different plants and animals have crossed over the oceans at different points in time – Remember the Colombian Exchange?

Recent GMOs Genetic manipulation has been around since the 1970s!

What do YOU think? Group A = read the articles that are PRO-GMO and create a poster Group B = read the articles that are ANTI-GMO and create a poster MUST HAVE: – 2-3 “fact finders” – 1 scribe Gallery Walk!

Articles info/articles/biotech-art/in_favor.html info/articles/biotech-art/in_favor.html even-more-to-the-developing-world/ even-more-to-the-developing-world/ Reasons-to-Avoid-GMOs Reasons-to-Avoid-GMOs /17/the-debate-about-gmo-safety-is-over-thanks- to-a-new-trillion-meal-study/ /17/the-debate-about-gmo-safety-is-over-thanks- to-a-new-trillion-meal-study/