9451170 Joly Plant physiology is best explored through active, personal participation. The project will implement a new approach to laboratory instruction in Horticulture 301 (Plant Physiology). Its goal is to achieve a better balance between presenting factual content and allowing students to become personally engaged in the process of scientific inquiry. The proposal seeks funds for an array of instruments, including a gas chromatograph, a photosynthesis measurement system, spectrophotometers, psychrometers, electrophoresis equipment, centrifuges, incubators and plant growth chambers. These devices will be used in a two-stage approach to instruction. First, a "core" of nine lab experiments will engage students in structured studies of plant physiology and will teach the principles of modern techniques of measurement. Second, after students have mastered a body of technical skills, they will be presented with several demonstrations of plant responses, where the underlying cause of the phenomenon is not evident. Working in small groups, students will observe the response, consider possible explanations and hypothesize on the underlying mechanisms. After study plans have been approved, students will proceed to investigate their problem. Various approaches and outcomes will be possible, but the essence of the structure is that it permits open-ended inquiry, where initial results are explained, new hypotheses are constructed and new experiments are designed.
