Biology Department

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First Year Students' Independent,
Long-Term Experiments on
the Germination and/or Growth of
Wisconsin Fast Plants

 

 

Image of Pollinating Butterfly courtesy of Wisconsin Fast Plants
(image courtesy of Wisconsin Fast Plants)
 Image of Fast Plants Flower courtesy of Wisconsin Fast Plants
(image courtesy of Wisconsin Fast Plants)

 

At Muhlenberg College, students enrolled in the second Principles of Biology course, BIO151, are required to design their own research question and experimental design related to germination and/or growth of Wisconsin fast plants (seeds purchased from Carolina Biological Supply, Co.). There are very little limitations to their experimental design and they have available to them two methods for growing the plants; the quad method (developed by Carolina Biological Supply Co.) or the petri dish method. Over a three-week period, the pairs of students independently carry out their experiment, collect and statistically analyze their data, and prepare to present their results in the form of a poster and oral presentation to their peers. The class, as well as the instructor, grades each poster. The best poster from each lab section is displayed in halls of the Biology Department building, Shankweiler.

This experience teaches students how to:

  1. do a literature search about a scientific topic

  2. set up and carry out an experiment on their own

  3. design an experiment that is testable

  4. do basic statistics that allow them to make a more reasonable assessment of their results

  5. produce proper graphs and tables and finally,

  6. write in scientific format and create a poster that could be presented at a scientific meeting.

 

Why Use Wisconsin Fast Plants???
There are many advantages to using fast plants, one of which is their generation time is very short. This is ideal for doing genetics experiments as well as experiments that need to be completed in a short period of time.
Image of horizontal representation of life span from 0 to 40 days courtesy of Wisconsin Fast Plants
(image courtesy of Wisconsin Fast Plants)
If you are interested in finding out more about this organism,
go to http://www.fastplants.org

 

 

  • Two methods for growing fast plants in the lab
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    Image of Student's Poster with link to page showing other
  • Examples of students' projects, posters, and oral presentations
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