Garden Genetics:
Teaching with Edible Plants. Elizabeth Rice, Marianne Krasny, and
Margaret E. Smith. Arlington, VA: Na-tional Science Teachers Association (NSTA),
2006. Teacher Edition (ISBN: 978-0-87355-264-6), pp. 333. $15.95 ($12.95 for
NSTA members). Student Edition (ISBN: 978-0-87355-274-5), pp. 152. $8.85 ($7.16
for NSTA members). Paper. TEL: 800-277-5300 l Website: http://store.nsta.org
We seldom review textbooks, but this one has such a fresh and interesting
approach that I want to bring it to our readers’ attention. Tracing
genetic concepts with the same old pink petunias and Mendel’s peas can
get a little tiring. With this book teachers can present core content in ways
that are fresh and engaging for students.
This two-part set—a teacher edition and companion student edition—is
adaptable to biology students in grades 9-12, including Advanced Placement
(AP). It uses a series of activities and inquiry-based experiments with familiar
foods to teach genetics while helping students make connections to ecology,
evolution, plant biology, and even science.
What appeals to me about this text is its emphasis on food-plant-based situations.
For example, to learn about Punnett’s squares, students taste variations
in bitterness in cucumber seedlings and trace the differences to the parental
generations. Students then design experiments investigating the role that
bitterness plays in protecting cucumber plants from insects.
To learn about plant breeding, students re-enact a trial in which farmers
sued seed companies to compensate for $1 billion in U.S. corn crop losses
caused by genetic uniformity. Other activities include geographic maps of
the origin of food plants and genetic maps of economically important traits
like tomato color.
Teachers can use each chapter as a stand-alone unit or teach the book as a
whole. Activities range from guided worksheets to open-ended inquiry. Most
important, the innovative content emphasizes the problem-solving skills working
scientists must employ.
I wish we had had this textbook in my college botany class. If we had had
the concepts and taxonomy, which never became clear to me then, this could
have been clear and engaging.
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