Problem Based Learning #5: 3 Questions Kalo Cultivation
1. Why are issues related to kalo cultivation challenging for the general public to understand?
2. Based on what you learned in the Kalo Learning Module, your use of kalo resources, your content knowledge, and your own personal experiences, list problems associated with commercial kalo cultivation in Hawaii.
3. Based on the problems you identified, what are some viable solutions?
1. Issues relating to kalo cultivation are challenging for the general public to understand. People don’t necessarily care about the terms used when domesticating kalo, they just want a kalo that is edible and doesn’t have any viruses. Kalo has to continually be domesticated in order to eat it. Everything around us is constantly evolving. The kalo evolves in order to prevent pathogens from harming it. When this happens, the pathogens evolve to stay on top of the taro. It is a cycle that won’t end until we create a true taro that fully resists diseases. There are many things that are keeping us from eating kalo such as Taro leaf blight. TLB is when water soaks up in the leaves and makes it inedible. In order to counteract this, we need to genetic engineering to create a kalo that is edible and doesn’t have kalo leaf blight. We can transfer disease resistance genes into the taro. If we transfer oxalate oxidase genes into the taro it will break down oxalate into hydrogen peroxide, thus making the taro disease resistant. Since most of these terms are foreign to the community, they tend to ignore the problems. They may not want to care about the taro because they're not Hawaiian. The taro may not be a part of their culture.
2.
–Taro leaf blight
-Low genetic diversity
-Low resistance to disease
3. The most viable solution to Taro Leaf Blight is genetic engineering and conventional breeding of taro. With genetic engineering, we can transfer disease resistance genes into the taro, thus making it less susceptible to TLB. If we transfer oxalate oxidase genes into the taro it will break down oxalate into hydrogen peroxide, thus making the taro disease resistant. Another possible solution to this problem is conventional breeding. We can breed the taro with other taro that has the qualities we desire. Through artificial selection, we can create a disease resistant taro in this manner. Using this method is not as accurate because when you breed two different types of taro together you don’t know which qualities you will get. But once you get your desired qualities, you can continue to breed the taro through asexual breeding so they stay uniform. In order to increase genetic diversity we can breed taro with other compatible taro to make them more unique. This can increase the types of taro and provide a different DNA structure, hopefully one better then the previous taro. People are working on creating a super taro but it may be a better idea to create different types of taro specifically for the location. Instead of making one taro, we could create taro that are meant to survive in different environments.
2. Based on what you learned in the Kalo Learning Module, your use of kalo resources, your content knowledge, and your own personal experiences, list problems associated with commercial kalo cultivation in Hawaii.
3. Based on the problems you identified, what are some viable solutions?
1. Issues relating to kalo cultivation are challenging for the general public to understand. People don’t necessarily care about the terms used when domesticating kalo, they just want a kalo that is edible and doesn’t have any viruses. Kalo has to continually be domesticated in order to eat it. Everything around us is constantly evolving. The kalo evolves in order to prevent pathogens from harming it. When this happens, the pathogens evolve to stay on top of the taro. It is a cycle that won’t end until we create a true taro that fully resists diseases. There are many things that are keeping us from eating kalo such as Taro leaf blight. TLB is when water soaks up in the leaves and makes it inedible. In order to counteract this, we need to genetic engineering to create a kalo that is edible and doesn’t have kalo leaf blight. We can transfer disease resistance genes into the taro. If we transfer oxalate oxidase genes into the taro it will break down oxalate into hydrogen peroxide, thus making the taro disease resistant. Since most of these terms are foreign to the community, they tend to ignore the problems. They may not want to care about the taro because they're not Hawaiian. The taro may not be a part of their culture.
2.
–Taro leaf blight
-Low genetic diversity
-Low resistance to disease
3. The most viable solution to Taro Leaf Blight is genetic engineering and conventional breeding of taro. With genetic engineering, we can transfer disease resistance genes into the taro, thus making it less susceptible to TLB. If we transfer oxalate oxidase genes into the taro it will break down oxalate into hydrogen peroxide, thus making the taro disease resistant. Another possible solution to this problem is conventional breeding. We can breed the taro with other taro that has the qualities we desire. Through artificial selection, we can create a disease resistant taro in this manner. Using this method is not as accurate because when you breed two different types of taro together you don’t know which qualities you will get. But once you get your desired qualities, you can continue to breed the taro through asexual breeding so they stay uniform. In order to increase genetic diversity we can breed taro with other compatible taro to make them more unique. This can increase the types of taro and provide a different DNA structure, hopefully one better then the previous taro. People are working on creating a super taro but it may be a better idea to create different types of taro specifically for the location. Instead of making one taro, we could create taro that are meant to survive in different environments.
Problem Based Learning #4: Evolution Theory and Science Literacy
The main problem is that people who have little knowledge on evolution theory believe that antibiotics should be banned on animals used for food. This is because 90% of the US population is science illiterate, or they are unable to make an informed decision on a science topic. They have prior beliefs and values and they plan on sticking to it. This is a huge problem because if science illiterate people are making science decisions in our society it can have horrible outcomes.. For example, if antibiotics are banned for animals that we eat they may grow sick and die off. This would be negative for our food supply as well as our overall health and wellness. There are many factors in this problem: the science illiterate people for making these decisions; bandwagon and the appeal from quantum physics fallacy because people believe the science illiterate people due to the fact that everyone else believes them and because they are using difficult terms to understand; and companies claiming their products to be "all natural" or "organic" so people buy their products when they are basically the same thing. My solution to this problem is to slowly ease the animals off of the antibiotics and hope that their bodies slowly evolve so they adjust to not taking it. If we stop giving it to them immediately they will probably die off because their bodies have gotten so used to taking it after all these years of taking it. So if we slowly decrease the antibiotics given, we give the bodies time to adjust and in the end we will have relieved them off of antibiotics completely.
Problem Based Learning #3: GMO Labeling
The Problem/Situation:
- Food labeling laws have been in effect since the 1930’s.
- Genetically Modified Organisms [GMO’s] are currently not labeled by producers and manufactures.
- According to Dr. Mehmet Oz, MD GMO Blog site, more science research has to be done on the safety of GMO’s. The process in making a GMO centered on human agricultural practices that go back 10,000 years . Food labeling laws in the united states are regulated by several agencies.
- People don't know everything there is to know about GMO's. Some are dead set on labeling a certain number of GMO's without taking consideration of other things that are classified as GMO's. They look at the smaller picture instead of the big.
- GMO's are often confused with Genetically Engineered Organisms, also known as GEO's.
- What are genetically modified organisms?
- What makes domesticated animals and plants examples of GMO's?
- Should GMO's be labeled?
- Genetically modified organisms, also known as GMO's, have many benefits for the human race. We have modified organisms genetically for many years through selective breeding. To genetically modify an organism, you'd need to take out or add DNA to the organism or change it's environment.
- Through domestication we are changing the genetic level of an organism in order for it to be beneficial for humans. Humans have the ability to change the genetics of both plants an animals so they are in fact examples of GMO's.
- There are a lot of GMO's in the world and often times people don't know that a lot of the things we consume are GMO's. There actually may be too many to label, let alone count, if we were to label every GMO that existed. It kind of depends on what you think on the situation. Would you really want every modified food in the world to have a label? Sure, it would be good to know what is and isn't modified but sometimes there's just way too much to be keeping track of. Then again, if products aren't labeled we won't really know what kind of foods we are eating.
- Both the American Medical Association and the Food and Drug Administration support voluntary labels while taking into consideration that, "there currently is no evidence that there are material differences or safety concerns in available biologically engineered foods."
- If we're going to label some of the GMO's out there, we might as well label them all. It may seem like a lot of work but at least things will be more organized. Maybe they should be more specific in how each food was modified so that we as consumers of each organism know what exactly is begin put into our foods. Ex. Pesticides, Vitamins to help our immune system, etc.
- As I've said before there are some people that are currently fighting for only focusing on the labeling of some GMO's. It might be a good idea to label just the foods that they would want to label instead of making such a big deal about whether or not all GMO's or no GMO's should be label. Just label the ones that people want to label that way everyone is happy.
- Cho, John J., Yamakawa, Roy., Holleyer, James [2007]. Hawaiian Kalo, Past, and Future. College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources University of Hawai`i-Manoa. Sustainable Agriculture 1. Febuary 2007. Accessed online Jan. 4th 2013
- Diamond, Jared [2002]. Evolution, Consequences, and Future of Plant and Animal Domestication. Nature. Vol.418 August 8th 2002. Accessed online Jan. 5th 2013.
Problem Based Learning #2: Blood Quantum
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Problem Based Learning #1: Grade Deflation
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