Plant Botanical Case Studies for Gateway Undergraduate Biology Classes

Download the student handouts

Summary:

Each handout is a stand-alone activity that can be used to engage, assess, and review student knowledge and understanding. These activities have successfully been used in a first-year large enrollment introductory biology class at a primarily undergraduate university.  Each activity is a double-sided sheet of paper that can be printed out for each student, delivered online, or presented from a document camera in class. Activities include short introductory paragraphs interspersed with multichoice questions, graph interpretation exercises, and short answer questions.

The following resource was developed by Jessica Lucas and John Dobyns (University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh) as part of a Plant BLOOME grant

Targeted Age/Grade:

• First-year undergraduate majors and non-majors
• Dual-Enrollment high school students

Estimated Length of Activity: 

• Six activities that require 15-20 minutes of class time each
• Use all six activities, or choose the activities that work best for your course

Provided Resources:

6 complete student handouts on the following topics:

• Hormones coordinate Venus Fly trap eating and digestion
• Venus Fly Traps Hunt, Kill, and Eat
• Plant Carnivory Evolved Multiple Times
• Opium is a secondary metabolite
• Poppies, Humans and Opioids
• What are bioengineered foods?