I noticed the other day that NSTA press has a book called
"Construct a Greenhouse". This book not only teaches students
how to build a greenhouse, it also has information on introducing
concepts in thermodynamics, light absorption, and plant biology.
Has anyone tried this out or even taken a look at the book? It is
recommended for grades 6-12 but I know the college freshman in
my General Bio I course don't really understand many of these
basic concepts.
To anyone who is familar with the "Construct a Greenhouse" book:
Can Sandra (see message below) have her students first construct
a greenhouse, bring it home and then grow their pea plants? Can
the "successful" greenhouses be used over again the following
semester? What about cost? Has anyone tried this with other
plants (arabidopsis, etc..)?
> >plant-edders.
> >
> >in our nonmajors biology course, there is not much that is
> >experimental in the lab sequence, and space is extremely
limited. so,
> >last semester, i had students grow pea plants (innoculated and
> >control) at home on their windowsills. they maintained journals
and
> >growth data was collected and analyzed after 7 weeks of
growth. i
> >felt like students got involved in the project and enjoyed it.
> >however, a lot of the peas did not grow well. i had chosen peas
> >because the flower is pretty and the one we used should have
had a
> >pleasant fragrance. by the end of the semester, few students
reported
> > flowering, and a lot of the plants were sickly or dead.
> >
> >can anybody suggest a plant that can be grown from seed that
will
> >grow well under low light conditions?
> >
> >despite getting off to a poor start last spring, i'm still excited
> >about the possibilities inherent in this class effort at generating
> >real experimental data. any advice will be appreciated.
>>sandra
>*************
>Sandra L. Johnson, Ph.D.
>Plant Physiological Ecologist
>Middle Tennessee State University
>Biology Department PO Box 60
>Murfreesboro, TN 31732
>>Phone: (615) 898-2021
>FAX: (615) 898-5093
>
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