A 23-page PDF file (644 KB) with a complete set of activities for elementary students (also effective in middle school) to learn about the life cycle of flowering plants with a focus on reproduction. Students predict how many seeds their Fast Plant will produce and engage in planting, growing, observing doing supporting learning activities to understand the life cycle. Carolina Biological sells a...

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A 32-page booklet, containing complete instructions for activities at each life cycle stage. The booklet also includes important background information about plant physiology and how to grow Fast Plants. A Growth, Development and Reproduction kit is available. You can also conduct all the investigations explained in the booklet using seeds from a packet of Standard Wisconsin Fast Plants seeds (or...

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A series of experiments explore the effects of increased population growth on a population of Fast Plants. Through these inquiries, students will better understand the many substantial and pertinent issues surrounding human population explosion on Earth. These experiments can be adjusted toward middle, high school or post-secondary levels.

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Instructional materials for experimenting to learn what will happen to your Fast Plant if you subject it to a 10% liquid detergent solution? Experiment to determine the effects of substances in the environment on living organisms.

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Instructions for conducting an experiment using a growing system made from plastic soda bottles to find out what effect salt has on Fast Plants.

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This experiment takes advantage of the ease of growth and short life cycle (seed to seed in 35 days) in Fast Plants--an organism suitable for many kinds of home and classroom scientific investigations. Fast Plants are particularly interesting because, like humans, they exhibit considerable variation in many observable characteristics. Fast Plants® are useful for experiments investigating the...

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This activity for middle, high school or post-secondary students is an engaging laboratory investigation, which can be used to explore and gather evidence for the products of photosynthesis (and cellular respiration). Students experiment with rates of photosynthesis and/or cellular respiration by cutting disks from seed leaves (cotyledons) and using a procedure with a syringe to explore the rate...

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An article written for children, this reading explains the role of plants as producers. It is written at a grade 4-5 reading level, and it is a good supplement to the evidence that students can observe and record through experimentation with photosynthesis.

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The genetics investigations in this 15-page booklet were designed for students to develop understanding of the following biological concepts and skills: Mendel’s law of segregation and law of independent assortment Inheritance of 2 traits How genotypes influence phenotypes Scientific inquiry, including interpretation of evidence  

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In this investigation, students will gather their own evidence to explain how inheritance works. As they observe three generations of Wisconsin Fast Plants, students will unravel a mystery of paternity: What is the father’s phenotype? Is it the same as the mother’s phenotype or the offspring’s phenotype? Or is it something entirely different? As the generations of plants grow, students will...

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