Chloroplast Diversity

ABLE 2019 Major Workshop

This version of our student lab has been modified for the 'Using Foldscopes™ for Offline Exploration in Online Biology Courses' major workshop at ABLE 2019. If you have attended the workshop and have already prepared and posted your algae specimen, take the following steps:

(1) Download the student questions document from the Handouts box in the sidebar, at left. [A hard copy was also provided during the workshop.]

(2) Skip to the Chloroplast Density page of this lab (p. 7) and continue from there.

If you would like us to include your ideas for using Foldscopes in the revised manuscript for this workshop, please fill out this form. Short- and long-form evaluations of the workshop itself should be completed during the conference, at the direction of the ABLE 2019 organizers.

 

BIOL 1021 Student Instructions

In this lab you'll use your own portable microscope to explore the microscopic world and share what you find with the rest of the class. You'll also work with micrographs to explore aspects of chloroplast morphology in different plant and algal tissues.

 

Learning Objectives

After completing this lab you should be able to:

1. Assemble a portable microscope, collect and prepare specimens, and capture and share images of what you find.
2. From micrographs, recognize and compare chloroplasts from a variety of plant and algal species.
3. Use Fiji/ImageJ software to collect data from images.  
4. Relate quantitative and qualitative data about chloroplasts to cell growth, structure, and function, and to phylogenetic relationships among groups of photosynthetic organism

 

Required Documents, Tools, and Software

• lab questions document: download from the Handouts box in the sidebar [students submit an electronic version of this file for grading via Brightspace]
• a Foldscope™ (hereafter referred to as foldscope) [provided to workshop participants; available for purchase via https://www.foldscope.com ].
• Fiji¹ (ImageJ): free download via https://imagej.net/Fiji/Downloads; detailed instructions on its use to follow. If you already have ImageJ, you can use that.
• Padlet: no software or account required; instructions to follow

 

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Image Credits
chloroplasts of lace plant (Aponogeton madagascariensis) by Jacob Fletcher

Notes
¹Fiji is just ImageJ.

The Chloroplast Diversity Lab was developed by Jennifer Van Dommelen and Jacob Fletcher, supported by a Teaching and Learning Enhancement Grant from Dalhousie's Centre for Learning and Teaching. We thank sessional instructors Beverly Hymes and Herbert Vandermeulen for their feedback on early drafts of the lab.

 

 

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