plant systems pathway for plant breeder

CTE: Plant Systems Career Pathway cultivates success with Fast Plants!

Future Depends on Plant Systems careers In the ever-evolving landscape of agriculture and plant sciences, the need for hands-on experiences growing plants has never been more critical. Career Technical Education (CTE) courses in the Plant Systems Pathway are foundational for future professionals in a wide variety of plant science fields, and one valuable addition that stands out is the incorporation …

Fast Plants conference booth with hedi dan jackson

Fast Plants Conferences 2023 NABT CAST ACTE Booth Resources

It’s the season of professional development conferences for teachers, educators, and our Fast Plants Team! Come visit our booths in the exhibit halls, they’re always packed with living Fast Plants, recommended resources, and good conversation. Jackson is attending NABT in Baltimore; Hedi and Dan are attending CAST in Houston and ACTE in Phoenix! This blog post summarizes what you’ll find …

Digital Library of Fast Plants Resources

We are proud to announce a revision and upgrade to our Fast Plants Digital Library! In our more than 35 years serving teachers and researchers, the Wisconsin Fast Plants Program has always been dedicated to creating free, open source resources for using Fast Plants effectively as a model organism. The recently completed upgrade to our library allows us to make …

Dihybrid inheritance investigations support observation of phenomena and student-centered sense making

Dihybrid Inheritance Study Using Wisconsin Fast Plants – Open Source Educator Resources

Blog Post Sections Announcing Dihybrid Inheritance Study Teaching Tool Study and Resource Overview Dihybrid Inheritance versus Monohybrid Inheritance Patterns: Which to Choose? Identifying Traits Rosette-Dwarf and Anthocyaninless (Non-Purple) Study Timeline Learn More and Access Resources Announcing Dihybrid Inheritance Study Teaching Tool The Wisconsin Fast Plants team is proud to announce the release of a set of resources to support teaching …

Title slide for Brassicas Around the World & Wisconsin Fast Plants video

Investigating Brassicas Around the World with Fast Plants – Open Source Lesson

Blog Post Sections Announcing Brassicas Around the World Lesson Hands-On Fast Plants Experiment Models Brassica Selection Around the World This Investigation is Ideal for… Connecting Science and Culture Relevance of Fast Plants and Brassicas Around the World Announcing Brassicas Around the World Lesson The Wisconsin Fast Plants team is proud to announce a revision and content overhaul to one of …

Seed harvest by students at all ages is a valuable learning experience.

Seed Harvest – Identifying Mature Seeds

Producing Fast Plants seed for investigations that need offspring generations Seed harvest is an essential step in any Fast Plants experimental design that involves gathering evidence from offspring plants that students produce themselves. For example, you may have students conduct an inheritance investigation in which they inter-mate Fast Plants from an F1 generation to produce and observe the F2 offspring. …

New DIY Grow Lights for Fast Plants

Superior Grow Lights: Easy build your own What grow lights do I need for growing Fast Plants? That’s an important question. However, it also may be the start of a missed learning opportunity, if we’re not mindful. Consider for comparison your reaction when a student asks: “What do I need to know for the test?” Likely, your response includes hoping this …

Preservice teachers on the frontline in ending plant blindness

Preservice teacher learners become effective teachers of science by developing strong content and content pedagogy knowledge that support all learners. In other words, the learning arc for preservice teacher learners is multilayered and jam-packed! So, it’s a tall order to hope that future teachers of science–elementary and secondary–are the solution to our national epidemic of plant blindness. “Plant blindness” may …

Growing Fast Plants with children inspires learning

Growing plants inspires a botanical path

Growing plants inspires everything from a solid appreciation for plants to a lifelong passion. Equally important to inspiration, growing plants can be key to developing citizens literate about our dependence on plants for life. With this in mind, we share here Daniel Murphy’s firsthand account of his experiences growing plants and becoming–in his words–“a bona fide plant nerd.” Daniel publishes a weekly blog titled, Awkward Botany, sharing his …

My first experience teaching with Fast Plants

Classroom teacher, Julie LaConte, tells about her first experience teaching with Fast Plants in this guest post. Thank you, Julie, for sharing your insights and experiences! Fall 2019 was my first experience teaching with Fast Plants, and plants are one of my least favorite topics to teach.  After 18 years as an upper elementary and middle school science teacher, I have had my fair share …

Fast Plants investigation

Investigations with Wisconsin Fast Plants lead to powerful learning

Teaching and Learning with Fast Plants Investigations We know it is important to “help students make sense of the natural world by designing and carrying out authentic, student driven investigations (Wingert & Bell, 2015).” Compared to other living organisms, Wisconsin Fast Plants are easy to manage and very responsive to factors in their environment. In addition, many easy-to-observe Fast Plant phenotypes …

Flowering Wisconsin Fast Plants

Three mistakes to avoid for growing healthy Fast Plants

Maybe you’ve grown Wisconsin Fast Plants before, or perhaps you’re just getting started–either way, we all want to grow strong, healthy Fast Plants. Nobody wants tall, spindly plants that need support or sickly plants that barely flower. No problem! Read on, and we’ll explain three common pitfalls to avoid when setting up growing conditions that support healthy Fast Plant growth. 1. Not …

genetics phenotypes inheritance

Inheritance and Genetics: Understanding Patterns of Inheritance in Fast Plants

Wisconsin Fast Plants are an ideal model organism for observing and learning about inheritance patterns! Monohybrid and Dihybrid crosses demonstrate Mendelian patterns while other genetic stocks provide opportunity for observing cytoplasmic traits and developing of selection experiments. What inheritance patterns are observable in Fast Plants? Mendelian traits: monohybrid cross this investigation focuses on the genetics of the plant stem color trait Mendelian traits: dihybrid …

fast plants life science

Teaching Hands-On Life Science Using Wisconsin Fast Plants

Wisconsin Fast Plants are perfect for teaching life science in the classroom! Initially developed as a research tool at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Fast Plants have 30+ years of use as a model organism in K-12 education. This post is an introduction to teaching with Fast Plants, with links for easy access to materials that support developing and implementing hands-on life science …

Fast Plants were developed through conventional breeding; they are not genetically engineered plants

Are Wisconsin Fast Plants Genetically Engineered Plants?

Simply stated, Wisconsin Fast Plants are not genetically engineered plants. Rather, Fast Plants are the result of over 30 years of conventional plant breeding that continues, today. This plant breeding began in about 1974, using the same ways of doing things that people have used for at least 10,000 years to tame/control and improve crops for human use. In other words, those Brassicas …

Chemical Environment: Growing Healthy Fast Plants

Growing healthy Fast Plants is easy if you understand how the environment can affect growth and development. Three broad categories of environmental factors influence how an individual plant matures through its life cycle: 1) the physical environment, 2) the chemical environment, 3) the biological environment. This post is part of a series explaining how key chemical environmental factors can impact plants, Wisconsin Fast Plants in particular. Our website describes …