Students have the impression that all of biotechnology is moving new genes to new organisms and producing something useful. They think that this is high-tech and recent. However, people have been practicing biotechnology ever since the start of the agricultural revolution ten thousand years ago. Below are some topics on which students should be able to find abundant resources on the internet.

The cultivation of wheat in the fertile crescent or corn in pre-Columbian Americas.

Neolithic brewing.

Ancient domestication of dogs, pigs or cattle.