Download Opening Presentation for use with the Biotech Display - Oklahoma 4-H

(Opening of your presentation)
Biotechnology:
How much do you know?
1. Biotechnology is:
a. Using nuclear power to make life from nonliving things such as rock and soil
b. using microorganisms, plant cells or other living matter to make things
c. a rare species of owl
d. a technique that uses lightning bolts to create new life
2. Genetic engineering is:
a. Changing living things by changing their genes
b. the deliberate transfer of genes between and among species by humans
c. changing stones into living things
d. dependent on finding and moving DNA
What is Biotechnology?
Biotechnology is using biological processes to make products. The word biotechnology can be broken into
two parts. Bio is for biology, while technology refers to the tools and processes used for making things.
Biotechnology has been used for centuries to make things such as bread by using yeast.
Why is Biotechnology important?
From crop improvements to new medications, biotechnology has improved our lives and opened up a whole
new world of career opportunities. In the beginning:
Gregor Mendel, a 19th century monk, set the stage when he used pea plants to figure out how parents
pass traits on to their offspring. When James Watson and Francis Crick proposed a structure of DNA
that explained how it is able to transmit information from one generation to the next, modern-day
biotechnology emerged. Scientists have utilized biotechniques to splice important genes, stretches of
DNA that carry the information that makes the organism what it is, into developing crops and animals to
create products for human use.
Biotechnology and Agriculture
Biotechnology helps farmers produce food in ways that may be better for the environment. Scientists
today are developing plants that are resistant to specific herbicides and insects. This often means
fewer chemicals need to be used to protect crops from weeds and pests that rob the crops of their
vigor and yield. Biotechnology has the potential to create better food for everyone.
A new biotechnology has emerged over the past few decades. This new biotechnology, genetic
engineering, uses molecular tools to move genes from one organism to another, changing one or more
traits of the recipient organism. For example, tomato plants are being developed using a scorpion gene.
Researchers hope that built-in scorpion venom will guard off pesky deer that graze on fields.
FACT:
During 1999 in the United States, about 37 percent of planted corn, 47 percent of soybeans and 48
percent of cotton were genetically modified. There were approximately 100 million acres of biotech
crops worldwide.
(Continue with your lesson plan)