Instrumentation to Integrate Pattern and Process in Organismal Biology and Ecology

理解发生在不同组织层次上的过程之间的联系是生物学本科生面临的最大挑战之一。这个项目涉及两种机制，旨在提高学生对这种联系的理解。首先，本提案中要求的特定工具，便携式光合作用系统，便携式光谱辐射计和多通道代谢系统，将使我们的两个大型核心生物学课程的学生能够将人口或社区规模的模式与有机规模的能源生产和使用过程结合起来。其次，学生将在以开放式方式使用仪器的过程中培养动手技能，首先在测试教师提出的假设的同时学习操作，然后测试他们自己的假设，以完善他们对生态模式生理基础的理解。两个专门将有机体生物学与生态学联系起来的实验室是“光的奇妙：森林植物的光合特性及其对植物群落时空动态的影响”和“变温动物和恒温动物的能量策略及其生态后果”。这里所要求的仪器还将用于提高为主修专业开设的几门额外课程以及为非主修专业开设的综合科学/数学通识教育课程所教授的过程技能和概念的数量和分析复杂性。

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.