GMO: Mosquitoes in the Real World

What are they and what is their purpose?

GMO stands for a genetically modified organism. Any organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques is a GMO. This can be done when a genetic modification occurs involving mutation, insertion, or deletion of genes. A GMO mosquito was created to reduce the risk of diseases and to eliminate the spread of diseases that take an estimated 725,000 lives globally each year. These diseases these mosquitoes vary from the dengue, Zika, yellow fever, and chikungunya. Oxitec, a UK-based company have altered the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Male mosquitoes are modified to contain a lethal gene to combat the spread of viruses. The gene causes it progeny to die in the larval stage. The male mosquitoes then are released into the wild to mate with the wild females and to transfer the lethal gene to the offspring. The lethal gene is supposed to kill the offspring before they are able to mature, which helps eliminate the viruses that are being carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. The GMO mosquitoes carry a gene for a fluorescent protein that lets researchers distinguish modified mosquitoes from wild ones. Both of the inserted genes to the mosquitoes are nontoxic and hypoallergenic.  

GMO: Mosquitoes in the Real World 
By: Morgan Kocis, Kaitlynn Taylor, Ariel Stollman

                                                                          

                                            GM MAP LINK (Click on word to see picture from original site.)

Have GMO Mosquitoes Been Used Before?

Altered mosquitoes have been released in other countries such as; Brazil, Panama, Cayman Islands, and Malaysia. After the introduction of the altered mosquitoes into the environment the Aedes aegypti populations were reduced to 75 to 90 percent. In February 2016, in a district of Piracicaba, Brazil genetically modified mosquitoes were released and five months later the incidence of dengue in the district has fallen by 91%. It is clear that GMO mosquitoes have shown to be successful in other countries in the fight to kill and eliminate diseases. Will America follow the lead of other countries?

GMO Mosquitoes Ramifications

Tie to the Ecosystem

Currently, we are fighting the battle against mosquitoes carrying dangerous and deadly diseases by spraying nasty chemicals. “Each year 15 million acres across the United States are doused in Naled, a neurotoxic insecticide used to keep mosquito populations in check.” Pesticide chemicals like Naled are more harmful to the environment than to the insects, like mosquitoes, that they are targeting. These pesticides disturb the ecosystem and other insects not just the mosquitoes they are targeting. Naled is known to kill bees, butterflies, birds, and fish. Bees and butterflies are big pollinators that help with our agriculture.

When wondering about the animals like birds, bats, and other fauna within the ecosystem that feed on mosquitoes, don’t worry the GM  mosquitoes won’t harm them. Most insect eaters have broad diets, which means eliminating a specific mosquito shows no evidence anyone would be left without food.

Some experts believe that if we suppress Aedes aegypti, that it would leave and ecological hole in our ecosystem. Leaving a hole could either be positive or negative. Phil Lounibos, a University of Florida entomologist and mosquito expert said, “If you really suppress Aedes aegypti, an ecological equivalent is going to fill that background — most likely Aedes albopictus.

On Animals and Humans

Remember Naled that pesticide we were talking about before? Not only does it pose harm on the ecosystem and animals, scientist are saying high exposure to the chemicals used in Naled can have negative long-term health effects for humans. One of the main ingredients in Naled is trichlorfon, which could cause cancer and birth defects. “A 2014 study by scientists at the University of California, Davis found that pregnant women living within a few miles of farms where pesticides like Naled were sprayed had a 60 percent increased risk of their child developing autism.”

GM mosquitoes won’t harm animals that feed on them and they won’t harm you either. Male mosquitoes are the ones being modified and female mosquitoes are the only mosquitoes that bite, because they need the blood to nourish their eggs. But let’s say a female is modified and released within the mix. Being bit by a GM mosquito would have the same effect as being bit by an ordinary mosquito. There is no evidence that mosquitoes can transfer their DNA to any other organism, including the ones they feed on.

GMO Mosquitoes in United States

Florida

In 2016, FDA approved a genetically modified mosquito intervention for Key West, Florida. This trial is planned to launch this year in Key Haven Florida. Key Haven is 161 miles from the Miami-Dade neighborhood where our nation's first Zika case was detected. It is also five miles from Florida's 2009-10 outbreak of dengue was found. In November, the residents of this island will be able to weigh in on the fate of this trial during a non binding local referendum. If a trial is approved, the mosquitoes could be let loose as early as December.                       Florida Chart Link (Click this word to see chart from original site.)                                      

Information for Lessons and Teachers

Fight The Bite Activity: Use this fun activity to tie in the key concepts of West Nile Virus prevention/awareness and Entomology lesson on mosquitos.

Bug Me Activity: This is a great resource because it includes TEN different activities for teaching and learning that you can tweak to present genetically modified mosquitoes to the students.

Voting Activity: This activity can be tied to the voting situation with Florida currently. It's a great cross-curricular lesson!

http://www.oxitec.com/ted-talk-hadyn-parry-re-engineering-mosquitos-to-fight-disease/ : TED Talk - Hadyn Parry: Re-engineering mosquitoes to fight diesease

Michigan Science Standards

• 3-LS4-4  Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changes and the types of plants and animals that live there may change.

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.7 Interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively (e.g., in charts, graphs, diagrams, time lines, animations, or interactive elements on Web pages) and explain how the information contributes to an understanding of the text in which it appears.                                                PICTURE LINK (Click link to see original site.)

• 3-LS1-1 Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death

• 3-LS4-2 use evidence to construct an explanation for how the variations in characteristics among individuals for the same species may provide advantages for surviving, finding mates, and reproducing
  
  
  

  
  

Critical Thinking

1. Why do you think your student’s need to know about genetically modified mosquitoes?

2. How could you use this knowledge when thinking about genetically modified mosquitoes, diseases, and the ramifications on the ecosystem? (This question can be used during a lesson, ask you students to use their critical thinking skills.)

3. What would genetically modified mosquitoes look like in our ecosystem and how would they affect it? (This question can be used at the start of a lesson, ask your students to use their critical thinking skills.)

4. How could you tie in other subject areas? More specifically, how could you make this lesson a cross-curricular lesson?

Extra Resources

Below is a list of websites that have more information about genetically modified mosquitos.

1.http://www.healthmap.org/site/diseasedaily/article/brazil-rolls-out-gm-mosquito-farms-71812


2. http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/NewsEvents/CVMUpdates/ucm490246.htm


3. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/deepdive/fighting-zika-40277607


4. http://www.humanosphere.org/science/2016/08/fda-approves-genetically-modified-mosquitoes-combat-zika-virus-florida/

Sources within the blog

1.  http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RI/2/
2. https://www.michigan.gov/documents/mde/K-12_Science_Performance_Expectations_v5_496901_7.pdf
3. http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/08/genetically-modified-mosquitos-zika-gmo
4. http://circa.com/scitech/health/scientists-warn-pesticide-used-to-kill-zika-carrying-mosquitos-could-harm-humans
5. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/02/04/what-it-would-really-take-for-gmo-mosquitoes-to-solve-the-zika-crisis/?utm_term=.9489a9a1213b
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_organism

Linking Educators and The Amazon Rainforest

The Amazon Rainforest

Deforestation, Conservation, and

How Elementary Educators Can Teach

Their Students About It

  As educators, it is important for us to teach our students about the importance of the world around them and how it can affect them directly and indirectly. We can use the Amazon Rainforest to teach our students to connect the world around them to the larger global perspective. We can use the Amazon Rainforest to not only teach what Common Core wants our students to know, but we can also use it to teach our students about the place they hold in this world and how they contribute to it. The Amazon Rainforest raises many issues that can be taught cross-curricularly while teaching our students the very beginnings of advocacy and having a voice.

Map of the Amazon rainforest ecoregions as delineated by the WWF. Yellow line approximately encloses the Amazon drainage basin. National boundaries shown in black.Satellite image from NASA.

The lush Amazon Rainforest

The results of rainforest deforestation

Amazon Rainforest animals

Trees have been here long before humans and they will be here long after humans. Trees give us oxygen, paper products, lumber and lumber products, shade, and so much more. The Amazon Rainforest is not just home to about 10 billion trees, but it also holds one of the biggest ecosystems with more than half of the world's estimated 10 million species of plants, animals and insects.

What are the ecosystems that exist within the Amazon Rainforest?

To date, at least 40,000 plant species, 427 mammals (e.g. jaguar, anteater and giant otter), 1,300 birds (e.g. harpy eagle, toucan and hoatzin), 378 reptiles (e.g. boa), more than 400 amphibians (e.g. dart poison frog) and around 3,000 freshwater fishes including the piranha have been found in the Amazon. Within the Amazon Rainforest there are three specific ecosystems. The first ecosystem is called Varzea, or floodplain forests. This ecosystem consist of areas close to riversides that are flooded during the rainy season. The next ecosystem is called Terra firma, or the rainforest itself. This ecosystem includes forest area that is not on a floodplain, and is usually not near rivers. The third ecosystem that exists in the Amazon Rainforest is called Igapo. This exists near freshwater lakes and lower reaches of rivers.  

“The wildlife and plantlife in the Amazon has evolved over thousands of years and in such a way that every living creature relies on another to survive. This means the ecosystems of the Amazon Rainforest are extremely fragile.”

Endangered species in the Amazon: Habitat loss is threatening the survival of many species within the Amazon Rainforest. Some of the species from the Amazon that are currently endangered include the Giant Otter, the South American Tapir, and the red faced Uakari. This is only a few of the many species that are endangered within the Amazon Rainforest and the number of species will continue to increase as long as deforestation is occurring. The IUCN Red List was founded in 1964 and is a comprehensive inventory list of the global conservation status of biological species. Currently the IUCN (May 2013) lists 2633 species of near threatened, vulnerable, endangered, and critically endangered forest inhabiting species in South America.

Are humans being selfish by taking advantage of the rainforest?

The Amazon rainforest is home to an estimated 390 billion trees and 16,000 diverse tree species.The Amazon Rainforest plays a vital role in the global ecosystem by providing 20% of the world's oxygen and holding up to 17% of the world’s terrestrial carbon stores. The ecosystem in the rainforest relies mostly on mutualism. Well, it’s suppose to be a mutual relationship where the trees give living things oxygen and the living things give the trees carbon. Lately, it’s been more of an unequal relationship benefitting more heavily to humans. We get more out of the trees than the trees get from us. As we have mentioned before, humans use trees for almost everything to live a comfortable life. The Amazon Rainforest is very important to humans, both directly and indirectly, but it is also in trouble and at risk of being permanently wiped out.

The Amazon Rainforest gives us a variety of products that we depend on in our daily lives. Most people do not realize how many products actually come out of the rainforest. In order to save these products from getting destroyed, we need to keep in mind the effects of deforestation and what is being done to help it. Following is a link to a page that provides a long list of all the products that we receive from the Amazon Rainforest. (click here for list of products)

Why is Earth’s largest rainforest being destroyed?

What’s Happening?: The current rate of destruction is about 1 acre each second, which is a bit less than a US football field. (Rainforest Foundation US; http://www.rainforestfoundation.org/commonly-asked-questions-and-facts/)

There have been several ways that humans and human interactions have negatively impacted the Rainforest.

These ways include: Deforestation, cattle ranching, logging, mining, fires, road construction, subsistence and commercial agriculture. Actually, cattle ranching is the leading cause of the deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. Other human interactions make up slightly less than 30% of deforestation causes in the Amazon. These include: small-scale agriculture, large scale or commercial agriculture, logging, fires, urbanization, mining, dams, and road construction.

Amazon Rainforest Cattle Pasture

Why is this happening?: Deforestation is happening because humans either use the products from these trees in a variety of ways or clear the land of trees to make land for other products. Unfortunately, it is much cheaper for fields to be burned or destroyed rather than being replanted for future growth.

Forest Fire in the Amazon

The Rio Huaypetue gold mine in Peru

What that means: These specific processes threaten the lives of the people and animals who live in and rely on the Amazon Rainforest and its products for their survival. We use the land to benefit the lives of people who live in continents oceans away from the rainforest, but what about the people and animals who live in the rainforest and rely on the balanced ecosystem for survival?

What are humans doing to help?

The rainforest is very important, so what are we doing to help it?

Since 1970, an area in the Amazon the size of the state of Texas has been cleared. This is due to the massive amount of deforestation that has been occurring in the rainforest. The rainforest has experienced a giant loss of biodiversity within the several ecosystems that coexist in the rainforest. The deforestation in the rainforest has produced large amounts of greenhouse gasses, accounting for almost 20% of the global emissions in these greenhouse gases. We tend to only think about the effects of deforestation to the direct ecosystem of The Amazon Rainforest, but we forget that the mass destruction in the rainforest is starting to affect the ecosystem of the world.

To help stop the devastation of trees, Brazil has implemented six strategies to help save the trees and the rainforest. The strategies include creating protected areas, implementing restrictions for industry cooperations, satellite monitoring of these protected areas, improved reinforcement, creating international incentives, and political will. Brazil is not the only country helping the cause. Norway has pledged $1 billion to rainforest preservation efforts in the Amazon or $5 per ton of sequestered carbon. After much hard work, over half of The Amazon Rainforest is now a designated national park or indigenous land, bringing the deforestation rate of The Amazon Rainforest down 80% in the last decade. (See article: 6 Ways Brazil is Saving the Amazon)

Much of the hard work can be credited to teamwork: many countries are providing financial assistance to Brazil if they successfully reduce deforestation and CO2 emissions. In this program, industrialized nations pay for carbon to be maintained or increased in trees and soils through better forest management. Brazil has received over 7 billion dollars from countries including Norway, United Kingdom, United States and Germany. (See article: Stopping Deforestation)

The situation in Brazil has changed significantly since 2006, when a high profile campaign by Greenpeace forced Brazil's largest soy producers to commit to avoiding deforestation for new production. Greenpeace realized that the biggest problem associated with deforestation is companies continuing to clear land of thousands of trees to grow their crops; the biggest crop produced being soybeans. This group convinced companies to sign a moratorium, banning the purchase of soybeans from recently cleared land. There was also a ban from buying beef from recently cleared land. This made it hard for companies to sell their crops and beef from the newly cleared land with hopes of pushing them away from The Amazon Rainforest. This also made sure that less land is being cleared and that landowners who do clear land are not benefitting from it.

Even with all the efforts that are being done to conserve the rainforests, the impacts of climate change threatens both the rainforests and existing crops.

Overall, even though there is work being done to help save the rainforest and prevent deforestation, there is still a lot of work to be done. What more can we be doing?

By teaching the Amazon Rainforest we are teaching our students to connect the world around them to the larger global perspective. You are teaching students to link the concrete objective of looking at the things around them and connecting it to the abstract objective of thinking about where everything they have comes from.

   Teaching about the Amazon Rainforest is a valuable way to educate students of all ages about many different Science topics, such as ecosystems, deforestation, conservation, transmission of energy, and the impact that human beings have on the environment.

  You can link teaching about the Amazon Rainforest to the obvious science concepts, but you can also use the Amazon Rainforest to teach that our voices have an impact. You can use the issues discussed above to teach opinion writing and letter writing within your classroom. The issues in this blog can strengthen your Language Arts lessons by demonstrating how to write about cause and effect. An example of this could be an opinion piece or a letter describing why the rainforest is important, why we should save it, why we should care about it, what we get from the rainforest, and many other topics.

 You can also link the information given above to your Mathematics lessons by demonstrating to your children how to create and read a graph. We not only provided many graphs but also many statistics that you can give to your students to show them how to graph to show a story with numbers. For example, you can graph the statistics of the increasing devastation of deforestation to show what is happening to the rainforest and what is at stake. You can also graph the statistics and numbers that show how the positives happening in the rainforest and how it is improving.

  Another way to link the Amazon Rainforest cross-curricularly is to teach about how involved politics and government are as well as teaching about the different countries involved with helping Brazil with the Amazon Rainforest in your Social Studies classroom. Another way to link the Amazon Rainforest to your Social Studies lesson is to discuss the goods and services that are heavily involved in the products from the rainforest. You can discuss the products we receive from the rainforest and how this is made possible. You can also use the many issues discussed above to discuss the importance of geography that is played with the Amazon Rainforest and the massive deforestation rate.

Here is a chart that correlate to Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards broken down by each grade level for each lesson provided below:

Kindergarten

• My Forest or the Rainforest? http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/curriculum/kindergarten/lesson1
• How Far Away is a Tropical Rainforest? http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/curriculum/kindergarten/lesson2
• Biodiversity: http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/curriculum/kindergarten/lesson3
• The Long Road to Coffee: http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/curriculum/kindergarten/lesson4

1st Grade

• Knowing the Essential Elements of a Habitat: http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/curriculum/first/lesson1
• Protecting the Critical Habitat of the Manatee and the Loggerhead Turtle: http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/curriculum/first/lesson2
• How Does the Survival of Jaguars and Howler Monkeys in Belize Depend on Us?  http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/curriculum/first/lesson3
• Who Takes Care of the Maya Forest Corridor? http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/curriculum/first/lesson4

2nd Grade

• Rainforest Complexity and Diversity: http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/curriculum/second/lesson1
• Independence and Conservation: http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/curriculum/second/lesson2
• Products from the Rainforest: http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/curriculum/second/lesson3

3rd Grade

• Dependence and Interdependence: http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/curriculum/third/lesson1
• Surviving in our Ecosystems: http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/curriculum/third/lesson2
• If the Forest Could Talk: http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/curriculum/third/lesson3
• How Can We Keep our Forests Intact and Have Our Chocolate Too? http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/curriculum/third/lesson4

4th Grade

• What Would Halloween Be Like Without the Ecuadorian Rainforest? http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/curriculum/fourth/lesson1
• Why Does the Cacao Tree Need a Tropical Rainforest to Grow? http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/curriculum/fourth/lesson2
• How is a Frog Able to Swim in the Trees? http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/curriculum/fourth/lesson3
• The Tropical Supermarket: http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/curriculum/fourth/lesson4

5th Grade

• Biodiversity: http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/curriculum/fifth/lesson1
• Birds and Coffee: http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/curriculum/fifth/lesson2
• Deforestation: http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/curriculum/fifth/lesson3
• Community Action: http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/curriculum/fifth/lesson4

• Infographic with statistics on the Amazon Rainforest: