ABRC
Arabidopsis is...
Native to Africa, Asia and Europe
A common weed that has become naturalized around the world
Adapted to live in many different environments
A member of the mustard family, related to food plants like cabbage, radish and cauliflower
Small and easy to grow
The first plant genome to be completely sequenced
Easily mutated
An important model system for research and science education
Provided to K-12 schools free of charge
With Arabidopsis you can...
See a complete life cycle in 6-8 weeks
Observe plant anatomy and development
Explore inheritance and Mendelian genetics
See variation within members of a species
Observe adaptation to environmental conditions
Make connections to food crops
Make connections to real-life laboratory science
Design simple experiments using scientific practices
What can teachers and students do with Arabidopsis?
Arabidopsis provides the opportunity to complement classroom lectures with hands-on experimentation using a live organism. A number of science concepts can be demonstrated using Arabidopsis in the classroom. We invite you to try “Greening the Classroom”, a set of teaching modules developed by the ABRC. Greening the Classroom modules, which are aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards, include detailed protocols, supporting materials and Arabidopsis seeds (provided free of charge for K-12 teachers). We recommend stock number CS70000, wild type Columbia, for classrooms designing their own experiments.