Instrumentation to Integrate Pattern and Process in Organismal Biology and Ecology

了解发生在不同层次的组织过程之间的联系是生物学本科生面临的最大挑战之一。该项目涉及两个机制，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，便携式分光辐射计和多通道代谢系统，将允许学生在我们的两个大型核心生物学课程中将人口或社区规模的模式与生物体规模的能源生产和使用过程相结合。第二，学生将开发动手技能，同时以开放式的方式使用仪器，首先学习他们的操作，同时测试自动生成的假设，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。两个建议的实验室，具体联系生物学与生态学是“光的神奇：森林植物的光合作用特性及其对植物群落的时空动态的影响”和“外温动物和吸热动物的能量策略，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，并在非专业的综合科学/数学通识教育课程中教授。

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.