Middle School Curriculum
Unit 17: Biotechnology
Lesson 3: Exploring Biotechnology in Animal Science
STUDENT OBJECTIVES
1. Identify examples of biotechnology in animal science
2. Interpret magazine/newspaper/Internet articles about biotechnology
3. Describe how cloning affects animal science
4. Explain how the number of chromosomes influences animal characteristics
Agriculture QCC:………………………………………………………………………20
Language Arts QCC:………………………………………...………….. 6-51, 52, 57, 69
7-47, 49, 52, 64
8-46, 47, 52, 64
Science QCC:……………………………………………………………...………….. 6-1
7-1
8-1, 5, 9, 12
REFERENCES
Georgia Department of Education – Agricultural Education Curriculum Office.
Middle School Biotechnology in Agricultural Education. Georgia
Department of Education.
Osborne, Edward W. Biological Science Applications in Agriculture.
Danville, IL: Interstate Publishers, Inc.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleid=0001701D-211B-1CBEB4A8809EC588EEDF
http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/P/Polyploidy.html
EQUIPMENT, SUPPLIES, MATERIALS
Computers with Internet
Magazines, Newspapers, Science Journals
PowerPoint presentation
TERMS TO FAMILIARIZE YOUR STUDENTS WITH
Polyploid
Cloning
Plasmid
Epistasis
Haploid chromosomes
Phenotype
Teaching Procedure
A. Introduction
Georgia Middle School Agricultural Education Curriculum, Unit 17 Lesson 3
Updated May 2004
Ever since animals were first domesticated they have been used for a variety of
things from food and clothing to labor. More and more technologies are being
introduced to help animals become more productive.
Give the students two articles to read at the back of this lesson. One is a funny
story about mules and one is a story about a boneless chicken farm. Both can be
found in Disk 1 under Unit 17 Biotechnology. The folder is entitled Supplemental
Worksheets.
The number of chromosomes and the covering up of chromosomes affects how an
organism is expressed. For example, Labrador Retrievers have a characteristic
that covers up their appearance. Yellow retrievers carry a characteristic of
epistasis, which means they develop a certain type of gene that covers up the
effects of the dominant genes.
B. Motivation
Provide students with a wide array of information for them to research on animal
science technologies. Afterwards, they will give a short five-minute presentation
in groups on the topics they found.
C. Assignment
Working in groups of three, students will research various biotechnologies
associated with animal science. One student can be looking through magazines
and journals. Another student could use the Internet for information. The third
student using newspapers could find material as well. After their research, the
group will come together to talk about how they can present their topics in five
minutes. The teacher could have each group research a different topic so none of
the topics are repeated.
D. Discussion
1. Question: What are some biotechnologies used in animal science?
Answer: Answers will be based on the research topics
Answers could be cloning, genetic engineering, genetic variation, and
selection differential
2. Question: How will these biotechnologies help in the productivity of animals?
Answer: Answers come from the different groups. With genetic variation the
producer can select the top females for breeding.
3. Question: What are the impacts of these biotechnologies on the environment,
consumer health, and animals?
Answer: Answers will vary based on the groups. Environmental factors can
include nutrition and disease. The potential for inbreeding can also be factored
in.
4. Question: How will these biotechnologies benefit humans?
Answer: Answers will vary from each group. Answers include food quality,
food production, and number of animals to humans.
Georgia Middle School Agricultural Education Curriculum, Unit 17 Lesson 3
Updated May 2004
5. Question: What is cloning and how will it impact animal science?
Answer: Basically, cloning is about making an exact copy of something else.
The clone contains the same genetic information as the original, but the clone
will not be exactly the same as the original. Recently, society heard about
scientists cloning sheep. Dolly, the cloned sheep, had her picture on Time
magazine. Many researchers as we speak are working on cracking the human
genetic code, so in the coming years we may see a human clone as well. There
can never be a clone because once that clone is created it would have to do the
same things as the person or animal did. It would have to eat the same things,
exercise in the same amount, and so forth.
6. Question: Define epistasis and a common example of it.
Answer: Epistasis is having one or more genes that cover up the effect of a
dominant gene. Example: B gives black, b gives brown, and ee means yellow
for coat colors of Labradors. Ee and EE are normal so the black or brown will
show. You now must cross a black retriever (BBEE) with a brown retriever
(bbEE). The F1 generation gives BbEe, black retrievers. When you cross
BbEe with BbEe what happens?
BbEe
BbEe
BbEe
BbEe
F1 generation
In order to solve this question, we need to break down BbEe into Bb and Ee.
So you’ll have one Punnett Square of Bb cross Bb and Ee cross Ee.
B
b
E
e
BB
Bb
EE
Ee
Bb
bb
Ee
ee
7. Question: What is polyploidy and what kinds of animals are polyploids?
Answer: Polyploidy means having one or more set of haploid chromosomes
(n). In animals, this phenomenon is rare, but one can see it in insects,
amphibians, and reptiles. In Nature September 1999 issue, they revealed that
an Argentinean rat was a polyploid. This marks the first mammal to be
considered a polyploid.
Georgia Middle School Agricultural Education Curriculum, Unit 17 Lesson 3
Updated May 2004
E.
Other Activities
1. Students research about number of chromosomes and effects on animals. Give a short
presentation about it to the class.
2. Student Lab
In this lab, students learn what makes an animal a certain color. Using white and red
beans, students will be “breeding” their animal with other students’ animals in the
classroom.
1. Without looking at the beans, place your hand in the 50/50 white and red bean sample
supplied by your teacher and draw out twenty beans. Note: The beans should be the same
size and shape.
2. Count the number of beans of each color. Record the results as your initial genotype.
3. Put the beans in your cup. These twenty beans represent your animal and its genotype
for this exercise.
4. “Breed” your animal, in turn, to the animals of the students sitting in front of you,
behind you, to your left, and to your right. Do this by pouring your beans into their cup.
Shake the beans to get a good mix.
5. Pour the beans into your hand. Close your hand, and without looking, count out twenty
beans into your classmate’s cup.
6. Record the new genotype.
The way to tell your animal color is by counting the number of beans. If you had more
red beans than white, your animal is red. If you had more white beans, then your animal
is white. If you have an equal number of white and red beans, then your animal color is
roan, a mixture of red and white.
3. Teacher Activity: (on PowerPoint slides)
Students understand concept of dominant and recessive genes. Students see how
mixing two reds together forms red, red and white forms red, and when an added reagent
is introduced they see how red and white can form white.
6 small and 4 larger drinking glasses (beakers or mason jars), water, red food
coloring, bleach, yellow food coloring.
Fill two small glasses with water colored a deep red with food coloring. Fill two
more small glasses with plain water. Point out three apparently empty larger
glasses. (In the third of these, there should be some bleach, put there before class).
Tell the students that the red and clear waters represent genes. Now pour some of
the red solution from each of the two glasses (parents) into the first large glass
Georgia Middle School Agricultural Education Curriculum, Unit 17 Lesson 3
Updated May 2004
(F1). The solution is still red, showing that the phenotype is the same as parents.
Repeat for the two glasses of clear water, showing that the phenotypes are still the
same as parents. Now pour from both the red and clear glasses into the third glass
(bleach). The resulting solution is clear showing the trait of only one parent. Ask
the class which gene is dominant. Answer: the clear water.
The second experiment involves two small glasses, one with red water and the
other with yellow water. When the two are poured together into an empty larger
glass, the result is orange colored. This represents codominance or blending
inheritance in F1. Neither of parents is dominant.
Georgia Middle School Agricultural Education Curriculum, Unit 17 Lesson 3
Updated May 2004
ACADEMIC CONNECTIONS
Language Arts
Middle School Connections in Agriculture Education
Language Arts QCC: Grade 6-51, 52, 57, 69
7-47, 49, 52, 64
8-46, 47, 52, 64
Name____________________________________ Period____ Date______________
Teacher’s Note: Provide students with access to the media center to perform research.
This will be a two-part activity, with students researching and writing an essay about
biotechnology in plant and animal science.
Using the Internet, encyclopedias, books, magazine, etc. locate advancements and
impacts of biotechnology in animal science. Take notes of specific examples and record
your sources. Take notes in the space below and be prepared to write an essay on
biotechnology in animal science. After researching both animal and plant science and
their relationship with biotechnology, write an essay on biotechnology and include
information that you gathered in research.
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
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Georgia Middle School Agricultural Education Curriculum, Unit 17 Lesson 3
Updated May 2004
ACADEMIC CONNECTIONS
Science
Middle School Connections in Agriculture Education
Science QCC: Grade 6-1
7-1
8-1, 5, 9, 12
Name____________________________________ Period____ Date______________
Step 1:
The lesson speaks about cloning. Ask students to think about cloning and then introduce
them to the story of the Tasmanian Tiger, an animal that has become extinct.
Show the website or allow students to look up for themselves the website:
http://www.dpiwe.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/WebPages/BHAN-53777B?open
In a class discussion allow the students to brainstorm the pros and cons of cloning the
Tasmanian Tiger for reintroduction into the wild. Write each pro and con of the board
and allow students time to think about whether cloning is a good idea or a bad idea.
Finally take a vote and see whether the class had decided to clone or not to clone the
Tasmanian tiger.
Step 2:
As students enter the classroom, hand each student a grouping card (cards.ppt) with the
picture of an extinct animal on it (each student should get one card). There are three cards
for each extinct animal, with the word Pro, Con or Impact on it. Students with the same
animal will work together on this project.
- the Pro students will be in charge of recording reasons to clone and revive their extinct
animal.
-The Con students will be in charge of recording reasons not to clone and revive their
extinct animal.
-The Impact students will be in charge of recording the possible impact of reintroducing
the extinct animal to its habitat.
Explain these roles and hand out the recording sheets before taking the students to the
media center to conduct research (Cloning Sheet.rtf).
Allow the students to conduct research at the media center. After each group is done
conducting their research and completing the cloning sheet allow the students time to
have a group discussion and vote on whether or not to clone the animal that their group
has been researching. Afterwards allow each group to tell about the animal they had to
research and whether or not it should be cloned.
Georgia Middle School Agricultural Education Curriculum, Unit 17 Lesson 3
Updated May 2004
Summary
Conclusion
Technologies related to animals play a vital role in today’s world. Animals have
been used in a variety of ways since the beginning of their domestication. Because
the number of farms is declining, scientists around the world are working on
increasing the productivity of animals for the benefit of humans.
Evaluation
Written quiz
Georgia Middle School Agricultural Education Curriculum, Unit 17 Lesson 3
Updated May 2004
Middle School Curriculum
Unit 17: Biotechnology
Lesson 3: Biotechnology in Animal Science
The Boneless Chicken Ranch
Bioengineering has gone too far now. I recently visited a poultry farm. This was not an
ordinary chicken ranch. It was an ultra modern facility with the sights, sounds and smells
of a high tech facility – one where you might expect high quality electronics to be
manufactured rather than chicken flesh.
Based on my first impression, I thought that perhaps this relative new method of raising
chickens might indeed have some merits over traditional production methods, or even
over free-range production. I tried to keep an open mind. My animal rights activist
friends and I remember the experiments that backfired when we advocated that chickens
were happiest when given space to roam, explore and find their own food. To our
surprise, when the ends of an experimental chicken house were opened and chickens
were given the freedom to roam several acres of fenced pasture, they opted to stay near
the feed and water inside the building! When some adventuresome 20th century chicks
did venture out, several were snatched from the pasture by hawks.
But the boneless chickens were a different story. I was totally unprepared for such a
pitiful sight when we walked up on the first of thousands of boneless chicken enclosures.
There, was a sight that would have brought tears to the eyes and softened the hardest of
conservative republican hearts. Lying 1000 to a cage were the genetically engineered
boneless chickens that now appear on almost every restaurant menu. Barely an inch
apart, their mushy bodies lying side by side like water balloons, these pitiful little things
would break your heart as they flounced around trying to find support for they limp
bodies. Just a mass of flesh, feathers and entrails, this was the ultimate meat producing
factory. They were barely able to hold their heads up. Feed and water trays were lowered
every few minutes to give these chicks their only distraction from the boredom of the
cage.
The producer made me sick as he explained the advantages of boneless chickens. He
said, “Boneless chickens take up less space, they don’t run off weight, they are easy to
harvest with no chasing or netting necessary, the meat is more tender, and of course,
processing is easy because there are no bones. I can see why restaurants would find
boneless chickens easy to prepare. Dog owners can now feed leftover chicken to their pet
without worry about choking from splintered bones.”
Georgia Middle School Agricultural Education Curriculum, Unit 17 Lesson 3
Updated May 2004
Bioengineering needs to be stopped now. When animal bodies are altered to the extent
that they have no bones to support and move their bodies, it’s time to put an end to the
insanity!
Do you think bioengineering should be banned? Explain.
Do you think bioengineering has been given a bad name because of public hysteria and
ignorance?
Is the controlled, restrictive use of bioengineering necessary? Explain.
Do you think this story is true?
Do you think it is possible to produce a boneless chicken breed?
Georgia Middle School Agricultural Education Curriculum, Unit 17 Lesson 3
Updated May 2004
Middle School Curriculum
Unit 17: Biotechnology
Lesson 3: Biotechnology in Animal Science
HYBRIDS
Last of the Army Horses
This story takes place while James and Keith were privates in the army at Fort Stewart
Georgia. The sergeant called the boys to his office for a special detail. He said, “Boys,
y’all are on funeral detail for old Maude. Old Maude, the last of a dedicated group to
serve her country has died. After old Maude, there will be no more horses in the army -and we just kept her on because she was so good and had been around so long. I want
you boys to take Maude out and bury her on the parade ground. That way she can always
be a part of Fort Stewart.”
James and Keith did as they were told and began digging a large hole. Keith said to
James, “I don’t care what the sergeant said, he’s dead wrong. I grew up on a farm, and I
know for a fact that old Maude is a mule -- not a horse. He doesn’t know what he’s
talking about.”
Keith said, “Well, I really don’t know whether it’s a horse or a mule, but the sergeant is a
smart man. I don’t think he could be wrong about this. Besides, they told us that the
sergeant is always right.” They discussed the matter for a while, but did not come to
agreement on whether Maude was a horse or a mule.
Soon the camp Chaplain came by, so they asked him whether Maude was a horse or a
mule. The Chaplain thought for a minute. He knew it was a mule, but didn’t want to
contradict the sergeant. He said, “Well, you know I always go by the Bible, and the
Bible does not call this animal either a horse or mule. The Bible says it’s an ass.” James
and Keith really wanted a better answer than that, but they let the Chaplain weasel out
with being politically correct.
Later General Johnson came by and asked, “What are y’all digging, a fox hole?”.
James replied, “Not according to the Scriptures!”
How is this story related to the study of hybrids?
A mule is a hybrid
Georgia Middle School Agricultural Education Curriculum, Unit 17 Lesson 3
Updated May 2004
What cross produces a mule?
A mule is the cross between a male donkey (ass) and a female horse (mare)
Why can’t a mule reproduce?
The number of chromosomes is wrong.
Give one example of how a plant having the wrong number of chromosomes can be
useful in ornamental plants.
Don’t have to dead-head flowers; Flowers bloom profusely -- trying to produce
seed -- to no avail
How can the wrong number of chromosomes be useful in watermelons?
Producing seedless watermelons
How does this story pertain to biotechnology?
Hybrids are a result of genetic influence. Somewhere along the way a gene
produced a sterile mule. The number of chromosomes weighs heavily on how an
organism will develop.
Georgia Middle School Agricultural Education Curriculum, Unit 17 Lesson 3
Updated May 2004