BIOL 200 - Plants in the Modern World

• Apply concepts of plant biology to current topics of personal and societal relevance.
• Analyze current research and engage in critical thinking exercises to develop and defend positions on biological issues.
• Collect, analyze, and interpret laboratory and field-collected data to investigate biological questions and visualize cause and effect relationships in plant biology.
• Demonstrate an understanding of conceptual models of complex biological systems processes to the importance of plants for the functioning of the biosphere.
• Apply mathematical and quantitative skills to solve problems in plant biology.
• Describe the use of plants and plant products in their daily lives.
• Understand how uses of plants as staples in their diet differs in communities across the world.
• Connect how choices in resource use (for example, food choices, food waste, fertilizer use) can affect others in their community. 
• Debate issues of personal and public concern, e.g., use of nitrates and genetically modified organisms in farming and organic vs. conventional methods of agriculture.
• Observe the use of plants in different cultural traditions, e.g., Thanksgiving, Japanese Tea Ceremonies, and Traditional Herbal Medicines and describe the value of these traditions to people in those communities.
• Determine the trophic levels of the food items that they consume and calculate the energy related to that consumption.
• Calculate their ecological footprint and determine how modest changes can reduce their footprint.  They will also compare the footprint of the average person in the US with those from other parts of the world.
• Investigate methods of production for different food items and distinguish between sustainable and non-sustainable farming practices.
• Compare and evaluate multiple solutions to the problem of providing food for an increasing human population with minimum impact on the environment.
• Recognize the disparate socioeconomic impact of the “War on Drugs” for various drug plants (marijuana, opium, cocaine, etc.).
• The production of plants has often been associated with instances of social injustice.  Students will study and discuss the importance of group membership in multiple examples, such as the Irish Potato Famine, the Atlantic Sugar-Slave Triangle, and the use of slaves in modern chocolate production.
• Compare the availability of fruits and vegetables in communities from different economic levels in the area to determine the level to which “food deserts” occur in local communities.
• Analyze the availability of food and plant products to them personally and compare their usage to that for others in the world.  Students will also discuss how social, economic and political structures determine human uses of plants for food, fuel and medicine.