The Project
This project was designed for us as students to come up with a plan to make a difference in the world using biotechnology and the skills we learned throughout the year. This project included multiple steps where we chose a major overall problem then narrowed it down. We did this by looking at possible biotechnology problems in the world today such as food, health, and natural resources. My group chose to focus on food shortage problems and how to solve them for this project.
In this project we were allowed an unlimited budget but we had to find ways to apply these technologies into the real world to make a lasting impact on the lives of others. In order to get a thorough understanding we used five steps of progression. Each step helped us to comb through every detail and issue we may encounter in the process of solving a world problem.
Below are each of the stages in their full detail:
In this project we were allowed an unlimited budget but we had to find ways to apply these technologies into the real world to make a lasting impact on the lives of others. In order to get a thorough understanding we used five steps of progression. Each step helped us to comb through every detail and issue we may encounter in the process of solving a world problem.
Below are each of the stages in their full detail:
Stage 1: Identify
Current Biotech Issue/problem that needs to be solved:
Food Shortages.
Area(s) of Challenge: (food, health, etc)
Food
Who is impacted by the problem:
Those in developing countries
Previously attempted solutions and limitations of solutions
Stage 2: Research
What is your problem (at least 2 paragraph)?
Our problem is food shortages and how to fix it with biotech. This affects people obviously in Africa that don’t have enough food to survive. It affects other places in the world that have to deal with poverty. They don’t have a good government or economy to make money to buy food. There isn’t enough food there and people die of hunger so we want to think of a way to possibly fix that.
Current limitations, why has it not been solved already?
One of the current limitations is the fact that these technologies are very expensive. To be able to research and implement the proper solutions to solve food shortages world wide, it requires huge amounts of funding. This is a struggle because not everyone is aware of how big this problem really is. In order to fix the problem people need to become aware of how it affects the entire world.
Proposed solution.
One of our solutions for this problem is Genetic modified organisms also known as GMO’s. With this, it will help solve this problem by giving us more food by a lot and easier to grow in different climates. Also with GMO’s it will make the crops grow better and faster and also allow them to be transported in much greater distances without any harm to the crops. This helps stop the food shortage problem and helps benefit a lot of people.
Another solution we have proposed is improving the technology around the agricultural business. By helping to improve farming equipment and especially the cost of farming equipment, people who are not able to use or access these technologies will be able to. This will help them be able to grow their own crops and become more self sufficient, helping the cause of food shortages.
Golden Rice, golden rice is a gmo variation of rice that gives more vitamin A. More specifically, beta carotene which is what humans need to make vitamin A. There are places where people don’t get enough vitamin A and this would be an easy way to help that.
Mentor, why did you choose them, their credentials and contact info.
Clara Moskowitz:
Clara has a bachelor's degree in astronomy and physics from Wesleyan University, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
https://t.co/VGa40PNzrP
Ciations
https://www.livescience.com/2475-radical-science-aims-solve-food-crisis.html
https://www.paypervids.com/food-shortage-causes-effects-solutions/
Stage 3: Imagine
Overview of your solution and why it will solve your problem?
Our solution is GMO’s. These modify the genetically modify the plants which gives them better crop yields, more vitamins, and longer shelf life. This solves the problem because the plants will live longer to get to poorer countries, it will give kids with malnutrition better health, and it will make more food in general for them to eat.
I am currently a sophomore at San Marin high school. I am part of the STEM program here and for our final project, we were tasked of using biotech to make change in the world. We decided to focus on using GMO’s to fight world hunger. Our plan to pull this off is, first we need to come up with certain crops that would be most beneficial to our cause and we need to find the area in the world that is most in need of help in terms of food shortages. Then we will develop a hypothetical plan to help the people that live there. My group and I would love your feedback on our plan and any critiques to it.
Stage 4: Plan
Detailed descriptions of the tests you need to conduct:
For each test- what is the test, the purpose, general procedure, and what is needed to conduct it
We plan to use GMO’s that give extra nourishment, can stay fresh for longer, and that have more yield.
First we would test the nourishment. The purpose would be to see how many vitamins and minerals we could fit into food that people need. To try and make the most efficient food. We need all materials to make GMOs. We would use the bacteria bacillus subtilis to give the food more vitamins such as vitamin a, b-2, b-12, c, and d to support a lack of vitamins in poor areas.
Second, we would test to see how long the food could stay fresh for. The purpose is so we can get the food all the way to Africa without it going bad.. We would find the one that lasts the longest and use that. We would suppress two enzymes in tomatoes, A-Man & B-Hex, that build up during ripening. This would increase the shelf life of the tomato to over a month. We would try suppressing different amounts of the enzyme and see what makes it stay fresh for the longest.
Third, We will test how much extra yield we can get out of GMO’s. The purpose of this is to get more food to people in Africa. The population is increasing so we need to increase food production at the same rate. We would modify the germplasm in the seeds of plants. This is the genetic info that tells the seed how to grow. We would change this information until we got the most yield.
Stage 5: Create
Provide a detailed blueprint of your product. This needs to be as specific as possible with materials, size, different angles.
If building you need to build a prototype
What food, how, what parts of Africa, what plane, what airport
Step 1: We will insert genetic material directly into the germplasm of corn seeds. The germplasm holds the instructions for how the corn grows and how much grows. By inserting these instructions we will increase the amount anywhere from 5-25%. It has also been confirmed that they pose no threat to human health in fact have lower percentages of mycotoxins (-28.8 percent), fumonisins (-30.6 percent) and thricotecens (−36.5 percent), all of which can harm human and animal health.
Step 2: use K B!ggy’s fleet of private jets to supply 3.5 million people in the Central African Republic, which is the hungriest country in the world. The 3.5 million are 76% of their population that are in poverty. This will not only help the people with their hunger but their money because they won have to pay for food.
Step 3: build spaces for crops to grow in the Central African Republic. This will allow for the crops to grow there for longer and give them more space to grow food for themselves.
Step 4: every month we will send another plane in to bring more seeds to keep the population not hungry
Current Biotech Issue/problem that needs to be solved:
Food Shortages.
Area(s) of Challenge: (food, health, etc)
Food
Who is impacted by the problem:
Those in developing countries
Previously attempted solutions and limitations of solutions
- Advancements in industrial agricultural technology. One limitation to this is the cost and maintenance of the technology. Those who are more affected by food shortages can’t afford these advanced methods of farming.
- Dedicating more land to agriculture. One problem with this is finding land that is suitable for agriculture. Not all land and areas have the right conditions to grow crops so expanding land for farming is limited to only places with the right conditions.
- Genetically modifying crops so they produce more. Again this is very expensive so those who can’t afford to get these new technologies won’t have as much food.
Stage 2: Research
What is your problem (at least 2 paragraph)?
Our problem is food shortages and how to fix it with biotech. This affects people obviously in Africa that don’t have enough food to survive. It affects other places in the world that have to deal with poverty. They don’t have a good government or economy to make money to buy food. There isn’t enough food there and people die of hunger so we want to think of a way to possibly fix that.
Current limitations, why has it not been solved already?
One of the current limitations is the fact that these technologies are very expensive. To be able to research and implement the proper solutions to solve food shortages world wide, it requires huge amounts of funding. This is a struggle because not everyone is aware of how big this problem really is. In order to fix the problem people need to become aware of how it affects the entire world.
Proposed solution.
One of our solutions for this problem is Genetic modified organisms also known as GMO’s. With this, it will help solve this problem by giving us more food by a lot and easier to grow in different climates. Also with GMO’s it will make the crops grow better and faster and also allow them to be transported in much greater distances without any harm to the crops. This helps stop the food shortage problem and helps benefit a lot of people.
Another solution we have proposed is improving the technology around the agricultural business. By helping to improve farming equipment and especially the cost of farming equipment, people who are not able to use or access these technologies will be able to. This will help them be able to grow their own crops and become more self sufficient, helping the cause of food shortages.
Golden Rice, golden rice is a gmo variation of rice that gives more vitamin A. More specifically, beta carotene which is what humans need to make vitamin A. There are places where people don’t get enough vitamin A and this would be an easy way to help that.
Mentor, why did you choose them, their credentials and contact info.
Clara Moskowitz:
Clara has a bachelor's degree in astronomy and physics from Wesleyan University, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
https://t.co/VGa40PNzrP
Ciations
https://www.livescience.com/2475-radical-science-aims-solve-food-crisis.html
https://www.paypervids.com/food-shortage-causes-effects-solutions/
Stage 3: Imagine
Overview of your solution and why it will solve your problem?
Our solution is GMO’s. These modify the genetically modify the plants which gives them better crop yields, more vitamins, and longer shelf life. This solves the problem because the plants will live longer to get to poorer countries, it will give kids with malnutrition better health, and it will make more food in general for them to eat.
- Detailed description of the solution
- Your action plan: What needs to happen for you to be able to pitch your product
- Email to virtual mentor
I am currently a sophomore at San Marin high school. I am part of the STEM program here and for our final project, we were tasked of using biotech to make change in the world. We decided to focus on using GMO’s to fight world hunger. Our plan to pull this off is, first we need to come up with certain crops that would be most beneficial to our cause and we need to find the area in the world that is most in need of help in terms of food shortages. Then we will develop a hypothetical plan to help the people that live there. My group and I would love your feedback on our plan and any critiques to it.
Stage 4: Plan
Detailed descriptions of the tests you need to conduct:
For each test- what is the test, the purpose, general procedure, and what is needed to conduct it
We plan to use GMO’s that give extra nourishment, can stay fresh for longer, and that have more yield.
First we would test the nourishment. The purpose would be to see how many vitamins and minerals we could fit into food that people need. To try and make the most efficient food. We need all materials to make GMOs. We would use the bacteria bacillus subtilis to give the food more vitamins such as vitamin a, b-2, b-12, c, and d to support a lack of vitamins in poor areas.
Second, we would test to see how long the food could stay fresh for. The purpose is so we can get the food all the way to Africa without it going bad.. We would find the one that lasts the longest and use that. We would suppress two enzymes in tomatoes, A-Man & B-Hex, that build up during ripening. This would increase the shelf life of the tomato to over a month. We would try suppressing different amounts of the enzyme and see what makes it stay fresh for the longest.
Third, We will test how much extra yield we can get out of GMO’s. The purpose of this is to get more food to people in Africa. The population is increasing so we need to increase food production at the same rate. We would modify the germplasm in the seeds of plants. This is the genetic info that tells the seed how to grow. We would change this information until we got the most yield.
Stage 5: Create
Provide a detailed blueprint of your product. This needs to be as specific as possible with materials, size, different angles.
If building you need to build a prototype
What food, how, what parts of Africa, what plane, what airport
Step 1: We will insert genetic material directly into the germplasm of corn seeds. The germplasm holds the instructions for how the corn grows and how much grows. By inserting these instructions we will increase the amount anywhere from 5-25%. It has also been confirmed that they pose no threat to human health in fact have lower percentages of mycotoxins (-28.8 percent), fumonisins (-30.6 percent) and thricotecens (−36.5 percent), all of which can harm human and animal health.
Step 2: use K B!ggy’s fleet of private jets to supply 3.5 million people in the Central African Republic, which is the hungriest country in the world. The 3.5 million are 76% of their population that are in poverty. This will not only help the people with their hunger but their money because they won have to pay for food.
Step 3: build spaces for crops to grow in the Central African Republic. This will allow for the crops to grow there for longer and give them more space to grow food for themselves.
Step 4: every month we will send another plane in to bring more seeds to keep the population not hungry
Content/Key Terms
GMO's- GMO. The abbreviation for genetically modified organism. A GMO is an organism whose genome has been altered by the techniques of genetic engineering so that its DNA contains one or more genes not normally found there. We are using GMO's in our project to modify crops and be able to use them effectively in a region in need of food.
Arable Land- land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops. The area that we are working in for our project is lacking in the amount of arable land.
Germ-plasm- Germplasm are living genetic resources such as seeds or tissues that are maintained for the purpose of animal and plant breeding, preservation, and other research uses.
Mycotoxins- any toxic substance produced by a fungus.
Fumonisins- The fumonisins are a group of mycotoxins derived from Fusarium, Liseola section. They have strong structural similarity to sphinganine, the backbone precursor of sphingolipids.
Trichothecenes- Trichothecenes are a very large family of chemically related mycotoxins produced by various species of Fusarium, Myrothecium, Trichoderma, Trichothecium, Cephalosporium, Verticimonosporium, and Stachybotrys.
Vitamins- A vitamin is an organic compound and an essential nutrient, or micronutrient, that an organism needs in small amounts. Vitamins make our crops have more nutritional value than they would without them. This is beneficial to our crops as it means that people will need the eat less of them to obtain the necessary amount of nutrients per day.
Minerals- A mineral is a naturally occurring chemical compound, usually of crystalline form and not produced by life processes.
Enzymes- a substance produced by a living organism that acts as a catalyst to bring about a specific biochemical reaction.
Climates- e composite or generally prevailing weather conditions of a region, as temperature, air pressure, humidity, precipitation, sunshine, cloudiness, and winds, throughout the year, averaged over a series of years
Arable Land- land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops. The area that we are working in for our project is lacking in the amount of arable land.
Germ-plasm- Germplasm are living genetic resources such as seeds or tissues that are maintained for the purpose of animal and plant breeding, preservation, and other research uses.
Mycotoxins- any toxic substance produced by a fungus.
Fumonisins- The fumonisins are a group of mycotoxins derived from Fusarium, Liseola section. They have strong structural similarity to sphinganine, the backbone precursor of sphingolipids.
Trichothecenes- Trichothecenes are a very large family of chemically related mycotoxins produced by various species of Fusarium, Myrothecium, Trichoderma, Trichothecium, Cephalosporium, Verticimonosporium, and Stachybotrys.
Vitamins- A vitamin is an organic compound and an essential nutrient, or micronutrient, that an organism needs in small amounts. Vitamins make our crops have more nutritional value than they would without them. This is beneficial to our crops as it means that people will need the eat less of them to obtain the necessary amount of nutrients per day.
Minerals- A mineral is a naturally occurring chemical compound, usually of crystalline form and not produced by life processes.
Enzymes- a substance produced by a living organism that acts as a catalyst to bring about a specific biochemical reaction.
Climates- e composite or generally prevailing weather conditions of a region, as temperature, air pressure, humidity, precipitation, sunshine, cloudiness, and winds, throughout the year, averaged over a series of years
The Presentation
gmos_to_save_the_hunger_crisis.pptx | |
File Size: | 1384 kb |
File Type: | pptx |
Reflection
One thing that went very well during this project was the speed at which my group and I completed the work that we were assigned. This allowed us to have extra time to perfect the sections of the project that we had previously completed. Another thing that went very well was how my group communicated with one another. This allowed us to progress through the project without any major setbacks. During the steps of the project, each person contributed and I feel that the communication between the members of our group helped us do that very effectively.
I feel that I gained a better ability to communicate with my group in a very effective way that ultimately led our group to having much success in this project. I also feel that I have improved on my work ethic because in this project I contributed my part in the work in a thorough and timely manner.
One thing that did go wrong however was that we had so much extra time. Since my group and I went through this project and revised our work many times very quickly, we were left with time that could have been used to progress in the project but was ultimately not used for that purpose. Another thing that went poorly was the failure of the group to turn in one of the steps on time. This was the only stumble that our group had during this project that did result in a minor setback but ultimately prepared us to check that our steps were turned in correctly before moving onto the next part of the project.
I feel that I gained a better ability to communicate with my group in a very effective way that ultimately led our group to having much success in this project. I also feel that I have improved on my work ethic because in this project I contributed my part in the work in a thorough and timely manner.
One thing that did go wrong however was that we had so much extra time. Since my group and I went through this project and revised our work many times very quickly, we were left with time that could have been used to progress in the project but was ultimately not used for that purpose. Another thing that went poorly was the failure of the group to turn in one of the steps on time. This was the only stumble that our group had during this project that did result in a minor setback but ultimately prepared us to check that our steps were turned in correctly before moving onto the next part of the project.