Student Exploration: GMOs and the Environment

Directions: Follow the instructions to go through the simulation. Respond to the

questions and prompts in the orange boxes.

[Note to teachers and students: This lesson was designed as a follow-up to the Genetic
Engineering lesson. We recommend doing that activity before trying this one.] 

Vocabulary: herbicide, insecticide, genetically modified organism, pesticide, refuge field,

resistance
 
Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.) 

1. How might genetic engineering help farmers create more robust crops?

Genetic engineering could help farmers keep pest problems away and it could help them
determine what helps the crops produce. 

2. How might GM crops affect the environment?

It might cause insects to die, but I do not think it would have much change to the environment.
Gm crops would produce more crops and help the environment ecosystem.

Gizmo Warm-up
In the Genetic Engineering Gizmo™, genetically modified
(GM) corn was created that was resistant to insect pests and
tolerant of herbicides. In the GMOs and the Environment
Gizmo, you will use these strains of corn to maximize corn yields
while seeing how these techniques affect the environment.   

On the Controls tab, make sure One-year is selected for the Mode and None is selected for the
Resistance type. Make sure both sliders are set to zero. Click Play ( ).

1. Describe the corn field shown in the SIMULATION tab on the left. 

The corn field has some weed/flowers growing around the corn plants. And caterpillars are
eating the corn. 
2. Click Reset ( ). Drag the Herbicide and Insecticide sliders all the way to the right.
Click Play. Describe the corn field treated with these pesticides.

The corn is clean of bugs, but there are some weeds around the corn
plants. 

Activity A:  Get the Gizmo ready: 

One-year  Click Reset and drag the Herbicide and

analysis Insecticide sliders back to zero. 

Introduction: In a corn field, about 75,000 plants are grown per hectare (2.47 acres) of land. In
this simulation, a small sample of test plants are grown on about 0.0005 hectares of land. 

Question: How can we maximize corn yield using different strains of corn?

1. Observe: When the Resistance type is None, the corn isn’t resistant to insects or
herbicide. 

A. Click Play. Click on a few different corn plants to see a close-up. What do you observe?

There are spiders and caterpillars eating the

corn. 
B. What is the corn yield at the top right of the SIMULATION tab? 

7.6
tons/ha 

 Yield is the amount of crops harvested, and can be sold, per area of land. 

C. Select the TABLE tab. Based on the recorded data, what factors do you think have
reduced the corn yield from its maximum amount of close to 15 tons/ha? (Note:
Spiders eat harmful insects but do not damage corn.)

The amount of caterpillars that are eating the

corn. 
 2. Hypothesize: What Gizmo settings do you think would maximize crop yield?

Caterpillars and
herbicide 

3. Investigate: Click Reset. On the TABLE tab, click Clear to delete the current data. With
the resistance type None still selected, adjust the Insecticide and Herbicide sliders
until you get the best yield. (Note: Yields within 1.0 tons/ha are not significantly different.)

A.What is the maximum yield? 9.7 tons/ha

B. How much insecticide did you use? 180 L/ha

C. How much herbicide did you use? 0 L/ha

D. Why didn’t it help to add more herbicide to the The herbicide killed some of the corn
corn? plant 

4. Experiment: For each of the remaining resistance types, try to maximize corn yield by
adjusting the amount of herbicide and insecticide used. Then, fill out the table below.

Herbicide Amount Insecticide Yield 

Resistance type
Amount

Herbicide 300 0 9.8

Caterpillars 0 180 10.2

Caterpillars and 180 14.2

300
herbicide

5. Explore: When using caterpillar-resistant corn, does it help to add insecticide? Explain.

It helps keep the number of insects down. 

6. Challenge: Try to maximize corn yield without using any chemicals at all. Which
resistance type did you choose, and what was the yield?

Resistance Caterpillars  Yield 10.3 tons/ha 

type:

7. Observe: Clear any data in the table. Select the herbicide resistant corn. Set the
Herbicide slider to 300 L/ha. Starting with no insecticide, run several simulations, adding
an additional 20 L/ha insecticide after each simulation until the maximum is reached. 

Switch to the GRAPH tab. Change the dropdown menu on the right to Insecticide. 

A. Describe the shape of the graph.

It stays until it reaches about 140 L/ha of insecticide and then it starts going
up. 

B. What does the shape of the graph indicate about the amount of insecticide needed
to be effective?

It needs to be more than 120

L/ha. 

8. Apply: What is the minimum amount of chemicals (herbicide and insecticide) required to
get a yield above 13 tons per hectare? You can use any resistance type. Fill in the table
below.

Resistance Herbicide Amount Insecticide Yield 

type Amount

Caterpillars  200 L/ha 0 L/ha 13.1 tons/ha

Get the Gizmo ready: 

Activity B: 
 Select Multi-year for the Mode.
Long-term  Set Resistance type to None.
yield  Set Insecticide and Herbicide to 0
L/ha

Question: What are the long-term effects of GMOs on the corn field?
1. Review: In Activity A, you determined how to maximize yield for each type of resistance.
List the settings you used and the resulting yields in the table below.

Herbicide Amount Insecticide Yield 

Resistance type
Amount
None 0 180 9.7
Herbicide 300 0 9.8
Caterpillars 0 180 10.2
Caterpillars and 180 14.2
300
herbicide

A. How do you think the yields might change over a long period of time?

I think that the yields will decrease over a long period of time.

B. Which method do you think will cause the least amount of harm to the environment?
Explain. 

Resistance type set to caterpillars, I think that this produces the most yield with the least
amount of chemicals. 

2. Observe: Run a simulation for each resistance type using the settings in the table above.
(For the caterpillars and caterpillars and herbicide resistant corn, use 0 L/ha insecticide.)

Select the GRAPH tab. 

 
3. Observe: Click Reset. Select the Caterpillars and herbicide corn. Set Herbicide to 300
L/ha and Insecticide to 0 L/ha. Run the simulation for 30 years. 

A. Describe the corn field. 

A couple corn plants are being eaten by caterpillars and there are some weeds, but
overall the corn field looks good. 

B. Switch to the GRAPH tab. You can change the data the graph displays using the
dropdown menu. 

 
B. Describe what happens to the population of caterpillars over time.

The population of caterpillars increases overtime

D. How did this affect corn yield?

It decreases the corn yield over time because the caterpillars are eating the
corn 

E. Why do you think this is occurring?

There is no insecticide to keep the caterpillars away. 

 Caterpillars have evolved tolerance to the insect-resistant corn. This means they are
no longer killed by the proteins the corn produces.

4. Explore: Click Reset and select the Refuge field box. A refuge field is a separate field
that contains non-GMO corn. Click Play. What is the shape of the caterpillar graph now?

It only increases a
little. 
A refuge field allows caterpillars that are not tolerant of the GMO corn to survive. This slows the
spread of tolerance in the caterpillar population. 

5. Think and discuss: Why is it necessary to continually produce new types of GMOs?

Because overtime insects and the environment

changes 

Get the Gizmo ready: 

Activity C: 
 Click Reset to reset the Gizmo.
Effects on the  Set Resistance type to None.
environment  Set Insecticide and Herbicide to 0
L/ha

Introduction: Chemical pesticides from farms can pollute nearby water supplies, negatively
affecting the environment. Water pollution from pesticides can harm sensitive animals and
plants living in nearby streams, reducing populations and decreasing the number of species.

Question: What effects do pesticides and GM corn have on the environment?

1. Hypothesis: How do you think GMO’s affect the environment over the long term?

The chemicals used might damage the soil or other things that it doesn't target 

2. Observe: Click on the stream. 

A. What species do you observe?

Trout, frog, caddisfly, stonefly, crayfish, salamander,

stonefly
 B. How many total species are there?

53

C. Run a simulation using 0 L/ha herbicide and 0 L/ha insecticide. Do you observe any
changes in the stream over time?

No changes 

3. Compare: Run a simulation with maximum herbicide and insecticide. Observe the
stream.

A. How does the stream change?

The number of species decreased 

B. Switch to the GRAPH tab.

C. How do chemical pesticides affect the environment?

They kill animals over

time 
 4. Challenge: Using the Gizmo, try to maximize the 30 year corn yield while retaining 35 or
th

more species in the stream. Then, try to maximize the yield with 50 or more species. Fill
in the table below to show how you did it.

Refuge
Resistance type Herbicide  Insecticide  Total species Yield
?
Caterpillars and 90 35+ 10.6
Yes 150
herbicide
caterpillars and herbicide yes 0 0 50+ 9.7

Why did you make the choices you did in the table above?

to get the highest yield and also the most species 

5. Challenge: Choose the non-resistant corn. 

A. What is the best yield you can get while still retaining 50 or more species?

9.7 tons/ha

B. How does this compare to the GM corn?

It's about the same 

6. Think and discuss: Use everything you’ve learned to answer the following questions. 

A. What are the benefits of GM corn to the farmer?

To maximize the amount of corn yield 

 
B. What are the environmental benefits of using GM corn?

Grow better
crops 

C. How can GM corn be harmful to the environment? 

It can kill species