Welcome to Adobe GoLive 4

Welcome to the Education Homepage for the Wheat Genome Project. Watch this page for information gathered by our curators as well as links to other informative web sites.

Wheat Facts:

There are two major types of wheat planted in the United States - winter wheat and spring wheat.
Winter wheat is planted in the fall and harvested the following spring/summer.
Spring wheat is planted in the spring and harvested in late summer/fall.
Wheat is an annual grass plant that grows two to three feet tall.
The wheat head contains small seeds, also called kernels or grains. The grains are the only part of the wheat plant used for human food. Each head contains 50 to 75 grains.
A bushel of wheat weights about 60 pounds and contains about one million grains.
An acre of land, about the size of a football field, can produced enough wheat for about 2,500 loaves of bread.

Source:Nebraska Foundation for Agricultural Awarness, the sponsor of Nebraska's Agriculture in the Classroom program.

Just for Kids

USDA for kids A great resource for kids and adults. Find information on everything from Smokey the Bear and Forest Service Campgrounds to Backyard Conservation, Gardening and Weather.
Sci4Kids Don't let all that dirt make you think that agriculture isn't a science. Look here for project ideas using plants, testing vitamin C levels, etc.
Science Fair Central Looking for a science fair project? Check out this cool website created by "The Discovery Channel". Project ideas for students as well as advice for science fair organizers and parents of young scientists. For more links to science fair projects, visit The Internet Public Library Science Fair Project Resource Guide.
Ag in the Classroom. This site is produced by the Nebraska Farm Bureau as part of a nationwide program to educate school kids about agriculture.

General Topics

Wheat and Other Grains
Adopt a Wheat Field This educational website has been developed by Professor James Shroyer at KSU. Progress of winter wheat growing in a wheat field on the Agronomy Farm near Manhattan, Kansas has been carefully documented from soil preparation, through seedling emergence and heading. Definitely worth a peek!
Science of Foods - Cereals. A very informative web site produced by Oregon State University. Topics covered include processing, flour characteristics and a glossary defining many grain-specific terms.
Kansas Wheat Commission. This site provides information on wheat improvement efforts, food fact sheets, and other wheat related issues.
Wheat Mania This site, curated by the Kansas Wheathearts, includes a tour of a wheat farm and lots of grain trivia.
The New Zealand Cyberguide to Milling and Baking. This is one of the best collections of information and educational activities for students of all ages on wheat, flour, bread and other cereal products. Topics cover everyting from the wheat plant, nutrition, history to pasta making, enzymes and yeast.
Budweiser Beer School. This site covers the basics of beermaking, tasting and tending beer. A must-see for beer enthusiasts.
The Real Beer Page. Everything you could ever want to know about beer, brewpubs, microbreweries, homebrewing, and the beer industry.

Sites for Science Students

Genetics / Genomics
The Oregon Wolfe Barleys. A collaborative tool for genetics instruction and research using barley as a model system.
Food Biotechnology Links A comprehensive list of highly recommended food biotechnology internet sites.
Learning Tools for Understanding Genetics and Genetic Research. This site is produced by the National Human Genome Research Institute and contains fact sheets explaining scientific research techniques commonly used in molecular biology including PCR, DNA Chip Technology and Chromosome Microdissection.
Glossary of Genetic Terms. This glossary is produced by the National Human Genome Research Institute and contains definitions of many technical words found within this website. These definitions are also available as audio files.
Anatomy of a Comparative Gene Expression Study. This site was developed to illustrate the steps of a comparative cDNA hybridization study.
Wheat Genomics Through the Ages. This timeline was created by Pat Okubara, a scientist at the USDA/ARS/WRRC, to depict 11,000 years of wheat improvement and genomic discovery.
Triticeae Tribe. A brief outline of the major Triticeae crops.

Biology / Botany
Biology WorkBench. This is a web-based tool for biologists and serves as a portal to search many popular protein and nucleic acid sequence databases. The site also links to tutorials, class and workshop materials about bioinformatics and molecular biology.
The Tree of Life. The Tree of Life is a project containing information about the diversity of organisms on Earth, their history and characteristics. The information is linked together in the form of the evolutionary tree that connects all organisms to each other.

Please send comments and suggestions to Victoria Carollo, USDA/ARS/WRRC