Inquiry-Based Plant Science Education through Hands-on Molecular Biology Laboratory

生物科学（61）通过重大的课程修订工作，并在外部咨询的帮助下，生物系通过在整个课程中实施实践课程体验，实施了当前教学方法和建构主义学习方法的使用。大学在教育技术和实验室仪器方面的投资使我们朝着目标迈进。透过这个计划，本系的植物科学课程得以更新和修订，以满足为学生提供当代生物学研究经验的机构目标。植物学，植物生理学和生物学和生物技术的实验室方法正在更新，以包括同侪小组使用现代分子生物学和植物材料技术进行的基于探究的实验室经验。每门课程都包括一个学期的专题，以提供“做科学”的经验，从而增强学生对实验室技能和内容掌握的信心。通过这种方式，我们正在调整一些研究方案、仪器和传统上只在研究实验室中发现的长期发现过程，以满足入门级学生的需求，并在入门级生物课堂上实施这些以学生为中心的实验。这些方法进一步适应了高水平学生的需要，他们在完成更高级课程中更复杂和独立的研究项目的同时，重新审视这些以植物为中心的技术。

Biological Sciences (61)Through a major curriculum revision effort and with the assistance of outside consultation, the Department of Biology has implemented the use of current teaching methods and the constructivist learning method by implementing hands-on course experiences across the curriculum. Investment by the university in educational technology and lab instrumentation has moved us toward goal attainment. Through this project, the plant science courses in the department are being updated and revised to meet the institutional goal of providing students with contemporary research experiences in biology. Botany, Plant Physiology and Laboratory Methods in Biology and Biotechnology are being updated to include inquiry-based laboratory experiences performed by peer groups using the techniques of modern molecular biology and plant materials. Each course includes a semester-long project as a means of providing experience in "doing science" and thus enhancing the confidence of students in their lab skills and content mastery. In this way, we are adapting several research protocols, instruments, and the long-term process of discovery traditionally found only in research laboratories to meet the needs of introductory students and are implementing these student-focused experiments in the introductory biology classroom. These methods are further adapted to meet the needs of upper level students who revisit these plant-focused techniques while completing more complex and independent research projects in more advanced courses.