Plant Growth Chambers to Enhance Undergraduate Laboratories and Student Research

生物系设施增加了两个环境室，加强了实验课程（植物学、生态学、生理学、发育生物学）和学生研究（所有大四学生毕业的必修课）。这两个实验室与一个已有的生物培养箱相结合，使教师能够建立可控的环境，在其中进行植物和动物的实验。这些实验箱有三种用途：比较植物和动物对不同环境的反应；使有机体为实验处理做好生理准备；并维持生物体在受控条件下，以减少外来的环境变化在实验中，环境因素不被设计为实验变量。通过扩大本系可用的实验类型，特别是通过允许对环境对生物体的影响进行比较研究，这些室大大加强了本科生物实验室。用活的植物和动物做实验，得到好的、清晰的结果，可以让学生更好地理解他们在课堂上读到或听到的概念。对于学生的研究，室提高了精度和准确性，并显着扩大了可能的研究范围。

The addition of two environmental chambers to the Biology Department facilities is enhancing laboratory courses (Botany, Ecology, Physiology, Developmental Biology) and student research (required of all seniors for graduation). The two chambers, in conjunction with a biological incubator already available, allow the faculty to establish controlled environments in which experiments with plants and animals can be performed. The chambers are being used in three ways: to compare responses of plants and animals to different environments; to physiologically prepare organisms for experimental treatments; and to maintain organisms in controlled conditions to reduce extraneous environmental variation in experiments in which environmental factors are not designed to be experimental variables. By expanding the types of experiments available to this department and especially by allowing comparative studies of environmental effects on organisms, these chambers greatly enhance undergraduate biology laboratories. Good, clear results from lab exercises with living plants and animals allow students to gain better perceptions of the concepts they read about or hear about in lectures. For student research, the chambers increase precision and accuracy and significantly expand the range of possible studies.