Gas Exchange as a Primary Component of a Research-Oriented Biology Curriculum A new biology curriculum integrates project-oriented laboratories in all four years of the major to empower students with experience, confidence, and skills necessary to undertake independent research. A series of laboratory activities leads students through progressively more significant research experiences from introduction of biological concepts through guided design of their own experiments to development of research protocols. This series develops throughout three sequential courses: Frontiers in Biology, Organismal Biology, and Plant Physiology and prepares students for independent research projects involving organismal metabolism and gas exchange. Infrared gas analysis systems engage Frontiers in Biology students in the development of concepts in photosynthesis and respiration. Students in Organismal Biology use a diffusion phorometer and a portable photosynthesis system to investigate mechanisms of control of transpiration, factors that limit photosynthesis, and the effects of mineral nutrition on photosynthesis and transpiration. In Plant Physiology, students apply gas exchange techniques used in prerequisite courses to develop research protocols for investigating water use efficiency of desert shrubs, fruit ripening in native plants, and mechanisms of senescence in leaves.
