Aksel Sloan, Areli Gonzalez, Joseph Santos

Period 5
February 26, 2014


GMOs: That Thing in Your Food Group Script Forum Presentation Version
Title Slide: (Aksel)
Hello everybody my name is Aksel and this is Areli, Andrea, and Joseph. Our presentation is all
about GMOs and the title of our presentation is: GMOs that thing in your food.

Presentation Outline: (Aksel)
Our presentation will cover the policy issue/question, models in science, what GMOs are and
other basic information about GMOs, our mental models of GMOs, a conceptual model of
GMOs, and a summary.

The Issue/ Policy Questions: (Areli)
The issue or policy question is Should food be genetically modified even if we could increase
its nutritional value? WE should consider this question because GMOs have raised high
awareness in our country. What is the good things and the bad things of GMOs? People have
raised awareness for the cause of GMOs to be labeled. Therefore, you as a human being in this
planet you should know what GMOs are.

Models in Science: (Areli, me)
Models are known to be a representation of an object, law, theory, event or a phenomenon.
Models in science are used to explain a phenomena. There are both mental models and
conceptual models both will be seen in this presentation. However, mental models are much
different than conceptual models. Mental models are views as personal, internal, unstable,
idiosyncratic (which is peculiar or individual), and incomplete. They are otherwise known as
chaos. It can also be said that a mental model is the first thing that comes to your mind when you
see an image or when you hear about a certain topic. However, conceptual models can be said to
be clear, shared, external, and analog. They can be described as order or as in everything is in
place. There are three different types of conceptual models they consist of behavioral models,
structural models, and functional model. A structural model can be represented as this picture of
DNA, they are defined as a representation of how a phenomenon is arranged in space. A
behavioral model could be an image on how an organism or anything reacts to something, the
behavioral model is defined as a representation of how a phenomenon may perform or act.
Lastly, we have our functional model which is a representation of the purpose of the
phenomenon or how the phenomenon operates. We will be seeing more mental and conceptual
models throughout this presentation about our topic GMOs which Joseph will talk to you more
about.

Introduction of Topic/Phenomenon: (Joseph)
Our topic is GMOs. GMO stands for genetically modified organism. Which means that certain
organisms are injected with nutrients to make them more desirable. Most of the time when
people hear the acronym GMO, they think of foods. Many foods are injected with certain
nutrients to make them healthier or larger. Once they have the desired trait, they are selectively
bred to keep the trait in the DNA of the original food. However, some people think that these
foods can grow their own desired traits and the only thing we are injecting is potential diseases
into food that will eventually lead to sickness in humans. Which is why this is such a
controversial topic


The Mental Model: Chaos (everyone explains their mental model, Aksel explains the rest)
Aksel: Mental models in the most basic form are models that we have in our head. Mental
models are unstable and always changing. Mental models are also entirely personal and rarely
complete. My mental model of GMOs involved growth hormones even though growth hormones
are very different from GMOs. Next my group members will share about their mental models.

Arelis Mental Model: Originally when I heard the word GMOS my very first mental model was
the deformation of animals and how farmers inject their chicken in order for them to grow
quicker and so that they have more meat. My other mental model was a rat with a tumor because
when I think of GMOs the first thing that comes to my mind is how they test it on rats and other
living animals that are not human. When I heard GMOs my initial answer and thought was that
GMOs were bad but after research through this project I have viewed them differently I do not
have a negative view on them but I also dont have a positive view on the GMOs. Mental Models
are usually not correct because they are characterized as unstable and through my research I have
realized that my mental model was not correct.

Josephs Mental Model:
Personally, my mental model is of an apple with a needle inside of it and as the needle goes into
the apple, the apple grows. I think this is because when I first heard of foods being genetically
modified, it was how scientists were using steroids to make foods larger.

The Conceptual Model (Joseph):
Conceptual models are models that are clear and open to the public. They are the standard for
other models alike so they do not differ from person to person. The conceptual model of a GMO
is taking the desirable traits from organisms, and then inserting that DNA into the rest of the
organisms so that they all have the said desirable trait. This process is known as gene
splicing. Scientists are able to extract the desired gene, or in this case, the gene that kills insects
feasting on the crops, and insert it into the crop. After the gene is inserted, the crop will now kill
any insect that tries to eat it and can grow long enough to be picked, sold, and eaten. Now that
the crop is carrying the desired gene, it can be used as seed to plant future crops with the same
gene. The controversy behind this is that the same gene used to kill the insects are now in the
food that we will be eating. Many of the same toxins, bacteria, and viruses that kill insects can
still have an impact on us, by lowering our immune system or causing digestive problems. The
opinions on a topic like this can vary from people saying things like its better to have food that
only does a little harm than to have no food at all because a bug ate it before me or maybe
something like we shouldnt be adding things to our food that has potential to harm us

Summary Conclusion: (Axels part) When speaking of GMOs people automatically assume its
a bad thing. When in reality we the public are not really informed of all the things that come
along with GMOs. GMOs are created to provide more nutrients for the people consuming
them. Many people think that they are harmful because as the public our mind is set that
anything that is chemically or genetically modified is bad for us. Around 70% of all processed
food in the U.S is genetically modified. The models showed in the slides before will help you
understand because if you look at how the food has changed for example, corn you can see that
before it was really small but after it was genetically modified to be bigger and have more
nutrients. As stated before not all GMO's are bad on the contrary GMO's we're created to help
humans with crops and make produce better. Most of the food we eat is genetically modified but
we should be informed that the good things that come from them are highly beneficial. For
example; increased food supply drought tolerance, and increased pest and disease resistance.
Some cons are that they may because allergic reactions, when insects eat these GMOs they die
which could affect us, the GMOs that already exist can contaminate organic foods and wild
animals.

Joseph: To prove that genetically modified organisms can be helpful not only harmful, I will live
on nothing but potatoes and milk for the next week. This is to prove that there are two foods that
can support human life because they have been genetically modified to include nutrients that
were never included in the food before genetic modification was possible. Although it is
possible to do this, it is only a temporary replacement for a traditional diet. There is a nutrient
that your body needs called molybdenum. Neither milk nor potatoes contain this nutrient. So
after a long period of time with no molybdenum I would start to experience headaches, rapid
breathing and heart rate and even vomiting. If I go longer without molybdenum, I would start to
experience more serious symptoms such as acute asthma attacks visual problems, disorientation,
and the worst of all, a coma. However the human body does not need much to avoid these
symptoms. Also, these symptoms only occur with long absences of molybdenum. I will only be
going a week without it. If you find me in class or in the hall next week, you can ask me how the
diet is going. Ill tell you if Im experiencing any symptoms or if I'm getting tired of eating
potatoes.

Areli: So lets support Joseph in his experiment to prove that he can live on milk and potatoes for
the next week. Will you join him and eat potatoes and milk for a week? Now that you have
learned about GMOs what is your response towards the policy question? Did this presentation
change your point of view towards GMOs? Something to think about. Thanks you for your time.
Any questions?