Mississippi Science BOT.6.2

ScienceGrades 9–12Botany

The Standard

BOT.6: Students will ask questions, plan, and conduct field investigations on local plant communities.

Compare and contrast genomes using plant genetic databases (e.g., BLAST or plant GDB).

2026 Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for Science · Local Plant Investigations

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students compare rice and maize genome records for chromosome count and shared genes. They use BLAST to align a supplied gene sequence and describe the match.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student can find both genome records and compare their chromosome counts. They can use percent identity and query coverage to describe a BLAST match without claiming it represents the whole genome.
Common Misconceptions: Students may read 95% identity as 95% of the entire genome, even when the alignment covers one gene. They may also overlook a short match with low query coverage.
How to Assess It: Show a rice-gene BLAST table with maize at 94% identity and 98% coverage, and Arabidopsis at 78% identity and 98% coverage. Ask which gene sequence is more similar to rice and whether the results compare entire genomes.

Lesson moves

Give pairs printed rice and maize genome summaries plus DREB2 gene records; have them mark chromosome counts and highlight the gene in both records.
Ask, 'If two plants share a close BLAST match for one gene, what can you say about that gene, and what remains unknown?'
Give teams three saved BLAST hits for a rice DREB2 sequence; they rank matches by identity and coverage, then defend their top pick.
Present a breeder looking for drought-tolerant maize; students use rice and maize DREB2 records to pick a maize gene to test.

Free download

A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to BOT.6.2, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.

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