GUTS y Girls (140)

The GUTS y Girls team (#140) is from Santa Fe. This year they've submitted a project titled Genetic Contamination of Organic and Heritage Crops.

Proposal
http://mode.lanl.k12.nm.us/get_proposal1112.php?team_id=140

We are investigating the rate of gene flow between genetically modified (GM) crops and non-GM crops. This is a problem for non-GM farmers because they have little control over whether their crops are pollinated by GM crops, and harvests are no longer considered non-GM once they pass a certain threshold percentage (0.9 in the EU) of crops containing GM genes. Since some farmers save seeds, we want to find out how many generations it takes to cross the threshold percent if GM contaminated seeds are planted in non-GM fields. We are going to model pollination between two fields of crops, one GM and one non-GM.

Team Members

 * Natasha Farmer
 * Annabella Farmer

Sponsoring Teacher

 * Irene Lee

Interim Report
http://mode.lanl.k12.nm.us/get_interim1112.php?team_id=140

Problem Definition
Genetically Modified Organisms have become increasingly common in the past two decades. This is a concern for organic farmers, as GMOs can cross pollinate with natural crop varieties(1). So far, we have discovered no way to completely eradicate gene flow between GM and natural varieties. Once a farmer's crop passes 5% GMO, it can no longer be legally sold as organic in the U.S.(2)

We are modeling genetic contamination of organic crops, showing hybridization of organic and GM crops. By running multiple generations of two adjacent fields, we hope to discover how distance affects the time it takes for the organic field to pass 5% GMO.

Problem Solution
Our model includes two fields of a generic crop, one GM and one organic. They will be pollinated by insects. There are two alleles, the GM allele represented by red flowers, and all the natural alleles represented by white flowers. The organic plants release pollen, reproduce, and drop their seeds in the same positions as they were growing in. This approximates the seed saving practiced by many organic farmers.(3) The GM field releases pollen, and is replanted with all GMOs the next year.

Progress to Date
We have found an existing plant hybridization model from the NetLogo library(4), in which seeds are scattered and pollinated randomly, without being affected by distance. We have added bees to the model, which will pollinate the plants. The distance between the fields will affect how much they travel between the GM and organic crops. The distance variable will be controlled by a slider. By running multiple experiments and adding a graph of the allele frequencies, we will collect data.

Expected Results
We are expecting to show that significant genetic contamination of organic crops is a legitimate concern. If GMO farming is not regulated, it could contaminate the gene pools of common crops, possibly permanently. Our goal is to discover whether we can mitigate this problem by planting GMOs farther away from organic fields.

Introduction
Hello my name is Ben Turrubiates I am a Computer Science major at New Mexico Tech. I study computer science because I am interested in programming, and security. I hope to have a career in the information security field someday.

Progress
I see you have made a good amount of progress. I am glad to see you are using netlogo as your modeling language.

Mentors
I'm glad to see you have a mentor.

Model
I'm glad to see you are using netlogo for the modeling. Are there any other variables besides distance? Or are you purely focusing on distancE?

Face to Face Evaluation
Remember you have a face-to-face evaluation on February 11th!

Utilize this Judges' rubric used for for the Expo judging, in April, to organize your posts.

You seem to be progressing well, keep it up.

Final Report
No final submitted yet.