Providing Ears, Seeds to Local High Schools
--Virginia Walbot, Stanford University

Most schools are pressed if they have to purchase ears from Carolina Biological ... apparently they are about $5 each! So with a minimum of work, a corn lab can supply at least one teacher with materials for every student that will last for several years.

I have provided selfed ears of A2 Bt Pr/a2 bt pr and the test cross to a2 bt pr. With 150 ears selfed and 150 test cross ears, the teachers can let students really use the ears. Once this was combined with gl vs. Gl, once with Y, and once with R-nj vs. R-scm vs. R so that the students could look at independent assortment, look at different tissues, and appreciate that there are multiple alleles. If large ears are made, they apparently last for several years, even if students remove some kernels.

I've also supplied seed for dwarfs and recipes for applying gibberellic acid. The demonstration that some dwarfs respond to GA, and some don't, was apparently very popular with an 8th grade class in conjunction with a discussion of animal growth hormone. 


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