Instrumentation to Integrate Pattern and Process in Organismal Biology and Ecology

了解发生在不同组织层次的过程之间的联系是生物学本科生面临的最大挑战之一。这个项目涉及两个机制，旨在提高学生对这种联系的理解。首先，这项提案中要求的特殊工具，便携式光合作用系统，便携式光谱辐射计和多通道新陈代谢系统，将允许我们两门大型核心生物学课程的学生将种群或社区规模的模式与生物规模的能量生产和使用过程相结合。其次，学生将在以开放式方式使用仪器的同时培养动手技能，首先在测试教师生成的假设的同时学习仪器的操作，然后测试自己的假设，以完善他们对生态模式的生理基础的理解。两个专门将生物生物学与生态学联系在一起的拟议实验室是“光的奇幻：森林植物的光合作用特征及其对植物群落时空动态的影响”和“外温和吸热的能量策略及其生态后果”。这里要求的仪器也将用于提高过程技能和概念的定量和分析的复杂性，这些技能和概念在几个额外的专业课程中教授，以及在非专业的科学/数学综合普通教育课程中教授。

Understanding connections between processes that occur at different levels of organization is one of the greatest challenges facing undergraduate students in biology. This project involves two mechanisms aimed at improving student understanding of such connections. First, the particular tools requested in this proposal, a portable photosynthesis system, a portable spectroradiometer, and a multi-channel metabolism system, will allow students in two of our large core biology courses to integrate patterns at the population or community scale with processes of energy production and use at the organismal scale. Second, students will develop hands-on skills while using the instruments in an open-ended fashion, first learning their operation while testing instructor-generated hypotheses, and then testing their own hypotheses to refine their understanding of the physiological bases of ecological patterns. Two proposed labs that specifically link organismal biology with ecology are "The Light Fantastic: Photosynthetic Characteristics of Forest Plants and Their Consequences for Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of Plant Communities" and "Energetic Strategies of Ectotherms and Endotherms, and Their Ecological Consequences". The instrumentation requested here will also be used to improve the quantitative and analytical sophistication of process skills and concepts taught in several additional courses for majors, and in an integrated science/mathematics general education course for non-majors.