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Teaching about Water Relations in Plant Cells: An Uneasy Struggle.

ABSTRACT: University students often struggle to understand the role of water in plant cells. In particular, osmosis and plasmolysis appear to be challenging topics. This study attempted to identify student difficulties (including misconceptions) concerning osmosis and plasmolysis and examined to what extent the difficulties could be revised during a plant physiology course. A questionnaire was developed to monitor university students' conceptual knowledge before and after a course, and both qualitative and quantitative data were obtained. The data were analyzed using the constant comparison technique and descriptive statistics. Students were found to come to university with many misconceptions that had accumulated during their education. These misconceptions are extremely difficult to change during the traditional course, which comprises lectures and practical exercises. Students' misconceptions originate from commonly used sources such as textbooks, which are perceived as being reliable. Effective teaching of water relations in plant cells could include such didactic methods as "questioning the author," which allow teachers to monitor students' knowledge and help students acquire a more scientific understanding of key concepts.

SUBMITTER: Malinska L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5132375 | biostudies-literature | Winter 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Teaching about Water Relations in Plant Cells: An Uneasy Struggle.

Malińska Lilianna L Rybska Eliza E Sobieszczuk-Nowicka Ewa E Adamiec Małgorzata M

CBE life sciences education 20160101 4

University students often struggle to understand the role of water in plant cells. In particular, osmosis and plasmolysis appear to be challenging topics. This study attempted to identify student difficulties (including misconceptions) concerning osmosis and plasmolysis and examined to what extent the difficulties could be revised during a plant physiology course. A questionnaire was developed to monitor university students' conceptual knowledge before and after a course, and both qualitative an ...[more]

PMID: 27909028

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Project description:Environments with short growing seasons and variable climates can have soil temperatures that are suboptimal for chilling-sensitive crops. These conditions can adversely affect root growth and physiological performance thus impairing water and nutrient uptake. Four greenhouse trials and a field study were conducted to investigate if rootstocks can enhance tomato performance under suboptimal soil temperatures (SST). In a controlled greenhouse environment, we exposed four commercial rootstocks (Estamino, Maxifort, RST-04-106-T, and Supernatural) grafted with a common scion (cv. BHN-589) to optimal (mean: 24°C) and SST (mean: 13.5°C) and compared their performance with the non-grafted BHN-589 cultivar. Several root and shoot physiological traits were evaluated: root hydraulic conductivity and conductance, root anatomy, leaf gas exchange, leaf δ13C, shoot C and N, and biomass. Under field conditions, the same five phenotypes were evaluated for canopy growth, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), leaf nutrients, biomass, and yield. Under SST, root hydraulic conductivity (Lp) and conductance (K R), stomatal conductance (g s), and plant biomass decreased. Hydrostatic Lp decreased more than osmotic Lp (Lp ∗ hyd: 39-65%; Lp ∗ os: 14-40%) and some of the reduced conductivity was explained by the increased cortex area of primary roots observed under SST (67-140%). Under optimal soil temperatures, all rootstocks conferred higher g s than the non-grafted cultivar, but only two rootstocks maintained higher g s under SST. All phenotypes showed greater reductions in shoot biomass than root biomass resulting in greater (∼20%) root-to-shoot ratios. In the field, most grafted phenotypes increased early canopy cover, NDVI, shoot biomass, and fruit yield. Greenhouse results showed that Lp ∗ os may be less affected by SST than Lp ∗ hyd and that reductions in Lp may be offset by enhanced root-to-shoot ratios. We show that some commercial rootstocks possess traits that maintained better rates of stomatal conductance and shoot N content, which can contribute toward better plant establishment and improved performance under SST.

Dataset Information

Teaching about Water Relations in Plant Cells: An Uneasy Struggle.

Publications

Teaching about Water Relations in Plant Cells: An Uneasy Struggle.

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