The american biology Teacher ParTnershiP for research & educaTion in PlanTs (PreP) 137

AbstrAct A partnership between scientists, high school teachers, and their students provides authentic research experiences to help students understand the nature and pro-cesses of science. The Partnership for Research and Education in Plants (PREP) engages students in a large-scale genomics research project using classroom-tested protocols that can help to find the function of a disabled gene in the widely studied plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Here, we describe the framework of PREP in the class-room within the context of the National Science Education Standards. Key Words: Arabidopsis; inquiry learning; authentic research; plants. Biology teachers must make a number of challenging instructional decisions throughout the academic year, including choosing what content is most important to teach, how to engage students and keep them focused during activities, and how to help students learn about science concepts as well as the nature and processes of science. The teacher-led demonstrations, laboratory activi-ties with predictable outcomes, and “quick labs ” found in most high school textbooks all have their place in the science classroom, but most fall short of providing teachers with ideal solutions to these challenges. University and college scientists face a separate set of challenges. With increasing competition for extramural funding and the requirement by some funding agencies to par-ticipate in K–12 outreach, scientists are often looking for creative ways to meet outreach requirements that help them stay competi-tive for research grants and demonstrate the societal impacts of their research. In the last decade, genomic-based projects studying various organisms have become a main driving force for research across the country. The 2010 Project, for instance, was established to develop a comprehensive understanding of the functions of genes in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana by 2010 (National Science Foundation, 2001), in order to better understand how flowering plants grow and adapt to their environment