Wisconsin Fast Plants®

Beeing an Engineer

Lesson Plans 

Learners gather evidence for explaining that Fast Plants—like other organisms—have a life cycle that includes “birth” or germination, growth, reproduction, and death. Use with Standard Fast Plants Seeds

Wisconsin Fast Plants® Elementary Exploration of Plant Life Cycles

Complete Kit

Learners explore the relationship between the needs of plants and the places they live, while observing plant structures that function to support survival, growth, and reproduction.

Reading Green™: Investigating the Life Cycle and Growth of Flowering Plants Kit

Lesson Plans 

Learners explore the relationship between the needs of plants and the places they live, while observing plant structures that function to support survival, growth, and reproduction.

Investigating Brassicas Around the World with Wisconsin Fast Plants®

Open Source Lesson Plan Folder

Learners construct a scientific explanation based on evidence to answer the investigation’s phenomenon question: “How is it that so many plants classified as Brassica look and taste different?”

Wisconsin Fast Plants® Growth, Development, and Reproduction Advanced Student Kit

Complete Kit

Learners gather evidence and use scientific reasoning to support an explanation for how specialized plant structures affect the probability of successful reproduction.

Wisconsin Fast Plants® 72-hour Monohybrid Genetics Kit

Complete Kit

Learners develop and use a model to describe why reproduction in Fast Plants results in offspring with variation. Uses Fast Plant seed disks germinated in a Petri dish. No grow lights necessary.

Exploring Energy Transformations in Plants

Lesson Plans 

Learners investigate how plants harness and use sources of energy during germination and growth. Use with Standard Fast Plants Seeds

Wisconsin Fast Plants® Growth, Development, and Reproduction Advanced Student Kit

Complete Kit

Learners observe the Fast Plant life cycle with an emphasis on gathering evidence for how systems function and interact (e.g. nutrient and water uptake).

Wisconsin Fast Plants® Who’s the Father? Investigating Genetics Dihybrid Kit

Lesson Plans 

Learners investigate and ask questions to clarify relationships about the role of DNA and chromosomes in coding the instructions for characteristic traits passed from parents to offspring.

Teaching Human Genetics with Mustard: Rapid Cycling Brassica rapa (Fast Plants Type) as a Model for Human Genetics in the Classroom Laboratory

Published Article

Crossing the Threshold: Bringing Biological Variation to the Foreground

Published Article

Beyond Punnett Squares: Student Word Association and Explanations of Phenotypic Variation through an Integrative Quantitative Genetics Unit Investigating Anthocyanin Inheritance and Expression in Brassica rapa Fast Plants

Published Article

Independent Investigations with Wisconsin Fast Plants®

Informational Resource

This resource includes a list of investigable questions that are well suited to experimentation with Standard Fast Plants Seeds and information about observing and quantifying variation in Fast Plants.

Wisconsin Fast Plants® Independent Research Kit

Complete Kit

Materials kit that includes the seeds and growing materials needed for 4 deli-container growing systems for experimentation plus planting instructions.

Wisconsin Fast Plants® Confetti Kit

Complete Kit

This kit includes a variety of Wisconsin Fast Plants® seeds for studying variation in traits across 8 or more different Fast Plant stocks. Includes quads and the Wisconsin Fast Plant watering system.