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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><b><u><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'>On Behalf of Dr. Rod Wing:</span></u></b><b><u><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Dear Plant Science Faculty,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>I was awarded a NSF Plant Genome grant in September 2010 entitled <i>Oryza</i> Genome Evolution. NSF Plant Genome grants require an education and outreach component and we proposed Plant Science Family Nights as described below:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>3) Outreach to Elementary Students and their Families</span></i></b><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>: </span></b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>For this proposal, we plan to create a new program entitled “Plant Science Family Night” (PSFN) that will target approximately 1,600 K-5 students, and their families in Tucson’s District 16. District 16 has hosted several such events in the areas of physics, math and space/planetary exploration but none in the area of plant sciences. PSFN would feature 6-8 hands-on “discovery environments” and short talks to get kids excited about plants and science. In the 2010/11 school year we will distribute the November 2009 Science poster we developed that describes maize and the genome project. Potential topics include: <b>1) </b>What is a genetically modified plant? <b>2) </b>Do plants have DNA? (Kids could extract DNA and/or look at chromosomes under a microscope.) <b>3) </b>Can plants get sick and how? <b>4) </b>How were plants domesticated (e.g. corn and rice)? <b>5) </b>How can we feed the world’s increasing population? <b>6) </b>Bioenergy - fuel from corn, soybean or sugarcane vs. cellulose. <b>7) </b>Organic farming. <b>8) </b>How much water does it take to grow a plant? <b>9) </b>What is biodiversity and why is it important? <b>10) </b>Invasive/non-native plants - The buffelgrass problem and how to solve it. PSFN would also have a plant sale (grown by the kids) to raise money for science education. PSFN would run twice a year at Ventana Vista Elementary (VVE) School and be coordinated by a TBA UA coordinator and award winning VVE Librarian Ms. Caryl Jones (Jones collaboration letter). Each “discovery environment” will be lead by a UA Plant Science faculty mentor (Feldman collaboration letter). In year three, we will investigate the possibility of offering a for-credit summer workshop for teachers through UA’s Outreach College [220] to learn how to establish PSFNs in other school districts.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>I am writing you to see if any of you would be interested in participating in our outreach activity. It should be a lot of fun and is a great opportunity to promote our department and plant science research in Tucson. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The first PSFN is scheduled for March 4<sup>th</sup> from 5-8pm. Everyone is invited to attend, and I am hoping that some of you might be interested in participating by running a booth on a specific topic, or in general volunteering. If you are interested in participating in this workshop please let me know and we can discuss various options.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Best regards for the new year.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Rod<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>PS: We have a decent budget to fund this activity and I am willing to discuss the option of partial graduate student support (1 month/yr) to develop and teach various outreach modules for the program.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></body></html>