The UBC Botanical Garden will be used to demonstrate the wide range of possibilities for teaching using materials that are available in situ or freshly collected. An exercise in general systematics will use materials from the British Columbia Native Garden; the uses of plants as chemical sources will be examined with materials from the Physick Garden; the diversity of morphology will be examined using plants from the Food Garden; environmental and physiological adaptations will be seen in the Alpine Garden plants.

In this course, you will learn the basics of plant biology. The student will begin with plant anatomy, learning the names and functions of all of the parts of a plant, then move on to plant physiology, where you will learn about photosynthesis, growth, and reproduction. Next, the student will study plant evolution according to the fossil record and examine the diversity of plant life in existence today and how that diversity impacts global ecology. Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to: identify and describe the functions of the different cells, tissues, and organs that make up a plant; describe the major life processes in plants (photosynthesis, respiration, transpiration, growth and development, and reproduction) at the tissue, organ, cellular, and molecular level; explain the history and evolution of plants on earth; discuss plant diversity and identify the major characteristics of plant phylogenetic divisions; explain how plants fit into the global ecological system and why they are essential for life on earth. (Biology 306)

This exercise introduces students to concepts of photosynthesis at the whole organism level and to computer utilization in biology. Changes in carbon dioxide concentration are measured in environmental chambers using gas analyzers connected to computers. Carbon dioxide changes are graphed in real time as the plants take up CO2. Over a short time, sunflower seedlings show dramatic changes in CO2 uptake when light intensity is altered or color filters are used. Comparison of the resulting graphs will indicate treatment differences in the rate of carbon dioxide change. Modifying the basic experimental design allows this exercise to be used in a variety of courses.

This exercise will demonstrate to students the fluxes of certain inorganic ions in the roots of barley plants. It will familiarize them with the chemiosmotic principles that are involved in ATP synthesis and give them an understanding of solute transport.

As a laboratory exercise investigates the relationship between light energy incident on a leaf and the rate of photosynthesis measured by CO2 uptake with an infrared CO2 analyzer.

Covers grafting, propagation, lighting, watering requirements, the challenges of recombinant DNA research, fertilization, human nutrition

The fascinating concept of electron flow is explored with simple equipment in an exercise for first-year students. Students use a spectrophotometer to generate an absorption spectrum for spinach chloroplasts, and then make a prediction about the effect of wavelength of light on the rate of photosynthesis. Students design their own carefully controlled experiments to test their predictions.

These worksheets have been designed to enable all Key Stage 2 pupils to gain a better appreciation of growing healthy tomatoes. Each of the 8 worksheets are based upon the learning objectives and outcomes detailed in the QCA units for Science.

This resource is a detailed manual of protocols and instructional information for carrying out an undergraduate laboratory exercise in plant biology and physiology, including student outlines, instructors notes, and suggested questions for laboratory reports.

Fractions of plant cells prepared by homogenization and differential centrifugation exhibit enzymatic activity. In fractions containing chloroplasts, light causes evolution of oxygen and generation of high-energy electrons that are passed along the electron transport chain of the thylakoid membrane. The results of an assay for the reduction of DCPIP, an artificial electron acceptor, in these fractions can illustrate the photosynthetic activity that takes place within the living cell, and can indicate how successful the fractionation procedure has been in separating organelles.

Students are asked to develop a procedure for the determination of the amount of ascorbic acid in fresh and boiled cabbage tissue. In order to accurately determine the ascorbic acid content, students must take into consideration the following: a representative sample, aliquots, the boiling procedure, the presence of the enzyme ascorbic acid oxidase, and the release of ascorbate into the boiling water.

Light is often a limiting resource for plants, which can be stimulated to higher photosynthetic rates and higher growth rates by increasing the amount of light they receive. However, many plants are well adapted to living in low-light environments, like the shaded understory of a forest. In this lab, students test working hypotheses about the photosynthetic responses of representative pioneer and primary forest tree species that might account for the successional patterns observed in the forest. Students collect data on light intensity in gap and understory patches, on growth rates of representative pioneer and primary species, and on photosynthetic rates of representative species under gap and understory light conditions.

Techniques used in setting up field experiments to study the growth responses of herbaceous plants to a resource gradient will be discussed and demonstrated in the field. Methods of setting up light and nutrient gradients, soil sampling, seed collection and preparation, data collection and analysis will be included. Participants will observe on-going studies in the field at the Cedar Creek Natural History Area, and view slides of smaller scale Puse experiments.

This simple assay makes use of the ability of the plant hormone GA3 to induce starch breakdown in the endosperm of a barley seed from which the embryo has been removed. The effect of the hormone is clear and repeatable. This exercise can be used in introductory biology courses to demonstrate a basic plant process, or can be modified and used to investigate more sophisticated questions in a developmental biology course.

This resource is a detailed manual of protocols and instructional information for carrying out an undergraduate laboratory exercise in plant biology, horticulture, and plant physiology, including student outlines, instructors notes, and suggested questions for laboratory reports.

Wisconsin Fast Plants is a novel technology involving the use of rapid cycling genetic stocks (35 days seed to seed) of Brassica rapa and related species and includes simple, inexpensive, self-contained growing systems suitable for the classroom or laboratory at all levels from kindergarten to college. Participants are introduced to the uses of these plants in teaching: development, reproduction, genetics, physiology, and ecology.

Stomatal aperture provides much information about how leaves sense and respond to environmental conditions. Recent evidence suggests many species have nonuniform stomatal opening under both laboratory and field conditions, for example, different areas of the same leaf seem capable of responding independently to microenvironmental conditions. This exercise demonstrates how stomata respond to microenvironmental conditions by making casts of leaf surfaces and using them to evaluate stomatal opening and closing. It can be conducted in conjunction with discussions of photosynthesis and transpiration, as well as the implications of microenvironmental conditions to gas exchange.

This exercise illustrates the techniques for macerating wood and staining, mounting, and measuring tracheids. Mean tracheid length is different in different species of conifers; therefore, this laboratory can be expanded into a larger scale comparative measurement exercise.