Project BAD GEIES

Welcome to the project page of a European Network of schools all simultaneously growing 5 species of Brassica plants. The project represents the schools engagement element of a wider European, (ERA_CAPS funded programme (MAQBAT).

Since September 2016, schools having been nurturing their plants first to germinate, then attempting to keep them alive over winter (often under very cold conditions), then grow them bigger, watch them flower and see what happens next. Throughout this time they have been gathering data about plant growth and disease development which is being shared with the project scientists.

Why BAD GEIES (pronounced Bad Guys)

As well as being an acronym to describe the different aspects of plant biology being explored by the students' taking part in the project (Brassica Adaptation Disease Growth Environment in European
Schools), the project scientists are most interested in using the data from the schools to monitor for the appearance of different pests & diseases across Europe– these are the real BAD GUYS – reducing yield, damaging appearance and potentially increasing the costs of the crops to the consumer

Who’s growing what where?

School	Country	Age of pupils
Geschw. Scholl Gymn. Ludwigshafen	Germany	15-16
Sonderpadagogisches Forderzentrum, Munich	Germany	12 -14
ICS Frank Carradori, Pistoia	Italy	7-9
IC Nettuno I - "M. De Franceschi", Roma	Italy	11
Liceo Ulivi, Parma	Italy	13-15
Primary School No 46, Lodz	Poland	11-12
6th Upper Secondary Schoo, Krakow	Poland	18
Escola Secundária Domingos Rebelo, Ponta Delgada	Azores (Portugal)	17-18
Agrupamento de Escolas Padre João Rodrigues-Sernancelhe	Portugal	13
Agrupamento de Escolas Alto dos Moinhos, Terrugem Sintra	Portugal	12-14
Escola Secundária Garcia de Orta, Porto	Portugal	17-18
Liceul Teoretic "George Calinescu" Bucharest	Romania	15-16
Maiden Beech Academy, Somerset	UK	12
Swanmead Community School, Illminster	UK	10
Wadham Community High School, Crewkerne	UK	16-17

 

Brassica oleracea lines
520 Ningyou
099 Tapidor
436 Tina
251 Karat
224 wild

 

The schools themselves are sharing data with one another and scientists at the JIC  (as coordinators) via a private Facebook page. Occasional summaries of this work will be posted here.

So what have the scientist's been doing while the schools were gathering their first measurements?

> Paragraph to come <

Images from schools (Year 1)

Schools have engaged really well with the project, here's one of their videos describing their participation in the project. We are grateful to staff & pupils at Agrupamento de Escoles Alto dos Moinhos for sharing.

A blog post written by Rachel Burns from the JIC can be viewed here.

The wider MAQBAT  consortium partners are:-

Project leader: Ridout, Christopher J., John Innes Centre (UK)
University of Hertfordshire, UK
University of Copenhagen, Denmark
University of Göttingen, Germany
University of Lodz, Poland
Wageningen University, Netherlands