Integrated Study of Environmental Effects on Organisms

生物科学(61)生物与环境的相互作用表现在从生物化学到生态系统的许多尺度上的生物反应上。在自然环境变化的背景下，生物与其环境的关系一直是生态学家关注的问题，鉴于人类影响的环境变化对生物的影响，生物与环境的关系变得越来越重要。在这个项目中，库兹敦大学生物系提供的八门实验室课程将被调整，以向学生介绍生物体对自然环境变化或人类影响环境的生理反应。这些努力是对布鲁姆斯堡大学、康奈尔大学、特拉华大学和伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳香槟分校教职员工经验的改编和借鉴。实验室练习侧重于测量环境对生物体的影响，从生理到整个生物体的反应尺度。要研究的生物包括细菌、原生动物、植物和选定的海洋无脊椎动物。环境因素正在实验室或温室的受控环境中以及在野外自然环境变化的条件下进行研究。在这个项目中：1)学生在基于探究的实验室练习中合作研究生物体和环境之间的关系；2)学生分组工作，使用计算机接口的生理设备来量化对选定的环境因素的响应；3)学生研究选定的环境因素如何在个体表现、种群数量或物种之间的竞争相互作用的水平上影响生物体；4)学生使用从图形表示到基本推理统计的比较定量的方法来分析生理和整个生物体的数据；5)学生以手稿形式的实验室报告、海报或模仿专业会议的典型模式的口头陈述来展示结果。

Biological Sciences (61)The interaction of organisms with their environment is manifested in biological responses at many scales, from the biochemical to the ecosystem level. The relationships of organisms and their environments has been of concern to ecologists in the context of natural environmental variation and is of growing importance in light of the effects on organisms of human-influenced environmental change. In this project eight laboratory classes offered in the Biology department at Kutztown University are being adapted to introduce students to study of the physiological responses of organisms to natural environmental variation or to human-influenced environments. The efforts are an adaptation of and based on the experiences of faculty at Bloomsburg University, Cornell University, the University of Delaware, and the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Laboratory exercises focus on measurement of effects of environments on organisms from the physiological to the whole organism scale of response. The organisms to be studied include bacteria, protists, plants, and selected marine invertebrates. The environmental factors are being studied in controlled environments in the laboratory or greenhouse as well as under conditions of natural environmental variation in field sites. In this project: 1) Students are working cooperatively to examine the relationship between organisms and environment in inquiry-based laboratory exercises, 2) Students, working in groups, use computer-interfaced physiological equipment to quantify response to selected environmental factors, 3) Students examine how selected environmental factors impact organisms at the level of individual performance, population numbers, or in competitive interactions among species, 4) Students analyze physiological and whole organism data using comparative quantitative methods from graphical representation to basic inferential statistics and 5) students present results in manuscript-style laboratory reports, in posters, or in oral presentations patterned after those typical of a professional meeting.