Instructors:            Prof. Paul M. Hasegawa                           Prof. Burkhard Schulz

                                HORT 324                                               HORT 109

                                49-41315                                                 49-63635

                                paul.m.hasegawa.1@purdue.edu              bschulz@purdue.edu

 

Teaching Assistants:

Eugene Parsons HORT B3 49-45480 epparson@purdue.edu

Renate Weizbauer HORT 116 49-61721 rweizbau@purdue.edu

Prashant Hosmani WSLR B009 49-66454 phosmani@purdue.edu

                                            

Lecture:            MWF @ 10:30-11:20 am in HORT 117

 

Labs:                 M @ 11:30-1:20 am; 1:30-3:20 pm; 3:30-5:20 pm in HRGH 1109

Laboratory attendance is mandatory. Lab reports will not be graded without participation in the exercise. Lab reports are due on the Monday, immediately following completion of the exercise, at the beginning of class (10:30a). Late reports will be accepted until the 2nd Wednesday morning (10:30a) after completion of the exercise but a 50% reduction in grade points will apply.

 

Credits:              4 hours (lecture and lab)

 

Prerequisites:    (BIOL 110 or BIOL 131-132 or BTNY 210) and CHM 257 or equivalent, prerequisites have to be completed before the start of the semester.

 

Office Hours:    Instructors’ meeting times are flexible by appointment, send an email message (paul.m.hasegawa.1@purdue.edu and
bschulz@purdue.edu).  Scheduled TA office hours are:

 

                           Prashant Hosmani                      WSLR B009, Wednesday, 11:30 am - 12:30 pm

                           Eugene Parsons                          HORT B3, Tuesday, 11:00 am - 12:00 noon

                           Renate Weizbauer                      HORT 116, Friday, 11:20 am - 12:20 pm

 

Text:                  PLANT PHYSIOLOGY 4^th Edition (2006) by Taiz and Zeiger

 

                                

Grading:	Midterm Exams (3 exams)	3 x 100 points	300 points
	Final Exam		100 points
	Laboratory Exercises	8 x 25 points	200 points
	Independent Research		150 points
	Lecture quizzes	10 x 20 points	200 points
	Attendance & Participation		50 points
	Total Points		1000 points

 

Grades:

                           A =  90 to 100% (900 - 1000)

                           B = 80 to 89% (800 - 899)

                           C =  70 to 79% (700 - 799)

                           D =  60 to 69% (600 - 699)

                           F =  < 60% (<600)

 

 

Attendance:       Lecture attendance is required. Laboratory attendance is mandatory. Lab reports will not be graded without participation in the exercise.  

Excused absences may be granted on an individual basis after consultation with an Instructor. There will be no excused absences for field trips, excursions and extracurricular activities that are in conflict with HORT 301 lecture or laboratory periods, unless there is an official University policy regarding that event. There are no make-up assignments for quizzes or laboratory exercise reports without prior agreement of an instructor.

 

Objective:           The course will discuss mechanisms and processes of plant function (plant physiology). Lectures and laboratory exercises will present plant physiology in the context of growth and development with emphasis on physical, biochemical, molecular genetic and organismal functioning of higher seed plants (angiosperms). Topics will focus on mechanisms and processes that are fundamental for cell, tissue and organ composition, differentiation and development. How plant growth and development are regulated and modulated by genetic, chemical and environmental cues will be emphasized. Mechanisms and processes will be presented in the context of the plant growth and development beginning with seed germination, followed by vegetative growth and development, and then by reproduction (flowering, seed formation and fruit maturation). Mechanisms and processes will be dissected at the cellular and organismal levels. Basic plant metabolism such as photosynthesis (primary metabolism) and secondary products (secondary metabolism), signaling and signal responses to chemical (hormonal) and environmental metabolic stimuli, water and nutrient transport and utilization, and plant defense against insects, pathogens and environmental stresses will be discussed. Distinguished experts will present lectures that translate plant physiology into agriculture and other anthropogenic uses.

 

 

Students with disabilities: If you have a disability, which requires special accommodation, please discuss this with either Prof. Hasegawa or Schulz during the first week of the semester. Included are special needs for examination procedures through the Purdue testing center.

 

Specal health emergency: According to a memorandum by the Provost Office (August 11, 2009), special care has to be taken t minimize the effect of 2009 Pandemic Influenza A (H1N1). In the event of a major campus emergency, course requirements, deadlines and grading percentages are subject to changes that may be necessitated by a revised semester calendar or other circumstances beyond the instructor’s control. Relevant changes to this course will be posted onto the HORT301 website (http://www.hort.purdue.edu/hort/courses/HORT301/default.html) or can be obtained by contacting the instructors or TAs via email or phone (for email addresses and phone numbers see above). For additional information related to the flu pandemic policy: http://news.uns.purdue.edu/x/2009a/090430WestmanFlu.html.

 

Academic Integrity: Purdue University values intellectual integrity, and students and faculty are held to high standards of academic conduct. University regulations prohibit “dishonesty in connection with any University activity.” Cheating, plagiarism and other forms of academic deceit will not be tolerated, and violations will be brought to the attention of the Dean of Students for further action.  Purdue University policy on academic integrity is provided here:  http://www.purdue.edu/ODOS/osrr/integrity.htm.

 

Advice on learning the concepts in Plant Physiology:

 

1.   Review and outline your understanding of materials as soon as possible after lecture. Simply reading and re-reading your notes doesn’t seem to be sufficient for most students.  Take an active step, such as outlining your notes, creating a diagram of a physiological process, or explaining the process to another person. This helps to clarify ideas and concepts.

 

2.   Keep up with the class.  Delaying the readings and review of your notes until a few days before the exam is a particularly hazardous approach.  If you find yourself having difficulty with the material, do not wait until you have problems with the first exam before coming in for help. Contact your instructors or TAs about any problems with the course and its content. Ask frequently and often!!!

 

3.   Make use of office hours and feel free to contactTAs or instructors by email.  In the latter case, there will be an expeditious response.

 

4.   Past experience has shown that it is very helpful for students to form a study group with whom you can meet to discuss the course material.  This approach will be most helpful when the groups are relatively small (2-4 people) because this allows everyone in the group to talk about the material.  We urge you to meet on a regular basis, not just before exams. Make sure that the group consensus about materials is correct. As you review the lecture material and questions come up, write them down and ask questions of the instructors or TAs until you understand the concept.

 

5.   We will not ask you to reproduce the structural formulae of compounds or detailed diagrams of metabolic pathways on the exams.  You should, however, develop a thorough understanding of the role of these pathways in plant physiology.  In other words, you should be able to explain the primary inputs, outputs, regulatory mechanisms, and environmental influences on the operation of the primary metabolic pathways of plants.

Science Learning: [Science learning can be distinguished into two major areas. The first is the accumulation of scientific content, which allows students to become familiar with terminology and nomenclature. The second aspect is active insight into the scientific processes. This includes to master the development of experimental design, data acquisition and analysis. Continual expansion, refinement and revision of knowledge as the scientific literature or experimental results are updated are important aspects of science learning and the scientific process. This is also a concept with which this course will be taught. The students will encounter three different means of scientific teaching in this course:

Lectures: During lectures background information, terminology and nomenclature, which are necessary to understand the material of HORT301 will be presented. Not so much the sole memorization of facts than the ability to recognize patterns, principles and concepts and using them to define interrelations between scientific results is the goal of this first part of science learning.  Study questions, quizzes and exams help to structure the material and make it easier to understand the content.

Laboratory exercises: The hands on experience in the laboratory exercises familiarize the students with process skills necessary for the understanding of scientific knowledge acquisition based on experimental methods. In addition they will emphasize the understanding of principles and concepts about mechanisms and processes that require command of scientific facts.  This will be done in the context of data presentation, data interpretation based on the current knowledge and hypothesis development about processes whether these are tested or not.

Independent Research Projects: Scientific evidence is the cornerstone of science. To generate scientific evidence the students have to be able to translate observations into model building and reviewing existing models and hypotheses, design of experimentation and selection of data analysis tools to come to sensible conclusions about the experimental results is also part of it. The tools of the non-biological tool-box such as statistics, physics, chemistry, math and computational evaluation become important aspects for this sets of necessary skills. This is the step to get from “hear-say” to sound scientific knowledge.

To put the scientific ideas into a broader context is a further step in science learning. The process of knowledge building is a dynamic process that will change concepts over time with emerging new evidence. Critical thinking and reiterated review of existing hypotheses and concepts help to understand that science allows multiple explanations for the same phenomenon. A driving force in the scientific process is to recognize that explanations provide also new and important questions for further research. Motivation and a positive attitude towards science will benefit students in their interactions with each other during the generation of scientific knowledge, working together on problem solving and generating new interpretations for gathered data.

Course evaluation: During the last two weeks of the semester, you will be provided an opportunity to evaluate this course and your instructor(s). On Monday of the fifteenth week of classes, you will receive an official email from evaluation administrators with a link to the online evaluation site. You will have two weeks to complete this evaluation. Your participation in this evaluation is an integral part of this course. Constructive feedback and participation by all individuals are vital to improve the course pedagogy.