Plant Physiology Packages for Investigative Labs Across the Curriculum

格林内尔学院生物系最近推出了一个修订后的课程，强调通过调查实验室的科学过程。课程已从以内容为基础的教学转向以探究为基础的教学。这些变化凸显了植物生物学领域的一些严重缺陷，特别是学生对光合作用，呼吸作用和固氮作用等基本植物生理过程缺乏理解或误解。我们建议解决这些不足之处，采用综合方法，将这些科目的日益复杂的治疗方法，从生物学的第一门课程开始，通过一个走廊级细胞生物学课程，并最终在高级课程和独立研究的高级工作。为了加强他们在这些领域的工作，我们希望通过允许他们使用整个植物而不是植物提取物进行自己设计的生理实验，为学生提供充足的“动手”经验。这将需要购买八个生理工作站和两个生长室。每个工作站将包括一台PowerMac计算机和三个生理学软件包，这些软件包包含允许用O2传感器测量O2产生、用红外气体分析仪测量CO2利用以及用H2传感器测量固氮的设备和软件。学生将被引入到基于计算机的数据采集和分析，这是成为生理研究的标准方法。学生还将通过使用计算机软件来提高他们的定量技能，这些软件将提供对他们的数据集的各种类型的分析。这些软件包的经济性和多功能性将使复杂的方法提供给大量的学生在我们的课程的每一个层次，帮助他们整合和掌握植物生理学原理，从入门级的学生到高级研究的学生。

The Department of Biology at Grinnell College has recently introduced a revised curriculum that emphasizes the process of science through investigative laboratories. Courses have been shifted from content-based teaching to inquiry-based teaching. These changes have highlighted some serious deficiencies in the area of plant biology, specifically students' lack of understanding or misconceptions about basic plant physiological processes such as photosynthesis, respiration and nitrogen fixation. We propose to address these deficiencies with an integrated approach that would introduce increasingly sophisticated treatments of these subjects starting with the first course in biology through a sophomore-level cell biology course and culminating in advanced work in upper level courses and independent research. To reinforce their work in these areas we want to provide students with ample 'hands-on' experience by allowing them to conduct physiological experiments of their own design using whole plants rather than plant extracts. This would require the purchase of eight physiological workstations and two growth chambers. Each workstation would include a PowerMac computer and three physiology packages containing equipment and software that will allow the measurement of 02 production with an 02 sensor, of CO2 utilization with an infra-red gas analyzer, and of nitrogen fixation with a H2 sensor. Students would be introduced to computer-based data acquisition and analysis, which are becoming standard methods for physiological studies. Students would also improve their quantitative skills by using computer software that will provide a variety of types of analyses of their data sets. The economy and versatility of these packages would make sophisticated methodologies available to a large number of students at every level of our curriculum, helping them integrate and master plant physiological principles, from the introductory student to the advanced research student.