Biological Sciences (61) The goal of this project is to enhance undergraduate biology majors' knowledge of how organisms capture and utilize energy from the environment. The department has recently expanded its physiology course offerings, which now include Comparative Animal Physiology, Plant Physiology, Human Anatomy and Physiology, Advanced Animal Physiology, Physiological Plant Ecology and Physiological Ecology of Animals. Since bioenergetics is a key linkage between organisms and their environment, the project combines modern instrumentation and inquiry-based physiology curricula to expose students to modern techniques and allow them to address questions relating to adaptations, global change, ecological relationships, biogeochemical cycles, and metabolic diversity.
In Plant Physiology, a laboratory to measure photochemical quantum yield (Dr. David Becker, Pomona College) is being adapted to prove the light reactions of bean leaves and to estimate electron transport rates. Laboratories from Dr. Carl Pike (Franklin and Marshall College, see also Dr. Steve Spilatro, Marietta College, (www.marietta.edu/~spilatrs/biol103/photolab/index.html) designed to teach photosynthetic adaptation and acclimation of eastern deciduous trees are being adapted to study oxygen evolution with varying incident light levels. Other laboratories that are being adapted to the institutional needs were originally designed by Dr. Robert Hodson (University of Delaware) and Dr Diane Robertson (http://web.grinnell.edu/courses/bio/qubitmanual).
In Physiological Plant Ecology materials are being adapted from several nationally known programs in plant physiological ecology, including materials from Dr. Rick Boyce (University of Denver, http://du.edu/~rboyce/ppe.html), Dr. Peter Curtis (Ohio State University, www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~pcurtis/courses/674%syl), and Dr. Bob Pearcy (University of California, Davis).
In Comparative Animal Physiology, Physiological Ecology of Animals, and Advanced Animal Physiology laboratories that use gas exchange measurements to explore effects of ambient temperature and endo/ectothermy on metabolic rate are being adapted. Models for these laboratories include experiments designed by Dr. William Mautz (University of Hawaii, Maui), Dr. James Carr (Texas Tech University), and Dr. Robert Hodson (University of Delaware).
Senior biology majors also use the new instrumentation in a capstone course that requires each student to design, implement, and present an independent research project in both written and oral form.
