Rehobeth High School and Cotton- wood High School
from Houston County Schools. To date, more than 500 students at 10 schools have participated in the innovative project.
HudsonAlpha Educational Outreach also provides training and resources to participating educators, em- powering them to implement portions of the program independently in their classrooms and building capacity to invite more schools and teachers to join the project. Selected peanut varieties from the pilot project are being grown in field trials at the Auburn University Wiregrass Research and Extension Center. They are being challenged by drought stress, an important factor in the Wiregrass region, where farmers do not use excessive irrigation. The breeding program’s ultimate goal is to produce drought-tolerant peanuts that are resistant to diseases common in the area (but also diseases common in other countries that could spread to the United States). ■
Students planting peanuts during the WIREGRASS Peanut Project class
peanut planting
extraction of DNA
Students use their Peanut Butter Bucks
peanut analysis
to help analyze the best peanut.
RESEARCH REPORT 2023-2024
55
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker