Part of Lesson Plan: Root Beer Making

Activity Overview / Details

Cut out the different events in the history of biotechnology from the resource given. Put them in a bowl and as the students come in, tell them to pick out one piece of paper from the bowl. When everybody has gotten one, let them stand up and tape their papers chronologically on a long butcher paper that is put up on a wall. They have to talk to one another to make sure that they are putting them up correctly from the earliest to the latest event based on the date given on each paper. When all the papers are taped, ask them to do a gallery walk to see the sequence of events. You may give them post-its to write on about interesting or surprising things that they saw on the timeline. They could stick their post-its next to the event that they have a comment on or just general comments. Afterwards, tell them to sit down and have a big group  discussion on those comments. Focus the discussion on beer brewing as one of the earliest events in biotechnology.