Plant Physiology
Information Website
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Individual Website Claimer: This entire web site is the personal creative and intellectual property of Ross Koning. All pages have been developed on my own time, on my family Macintosh with my own software and support hardware. These pages are supplied in the public domain but all copyright privileges are reserved. |
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The CBE name-year citation style for
this page would be:
Koning, Ross E. 1994. Home Page for Ross Koning. Plant Physiology
Information Website. http://plantphys.info/index.html ().
The APA citation style for this page would be:
Koning, R. E. (1994). Home Page for Ross Koning.
Retrieved from Plant Physiology Information Website: http://plantphys.info/index.html
The MLA citation style for this page would be:
Koning, Ross E. "Home Page for Ross Koning". Plant Physiology Information Website. 1994. http://plantphys.info/index.html ().
A Generic Office Schedule is available to check on my availability.
This is a freshman-year course for biology majors registered in one laboratory section of Bio 120. In this course freshmen learn about the university, the Willimantic community, and our shared biology program. We hope that the students, peer mentor, and faculty member become a cohesive and expanding learning community as they mutually gain and apply learning skills to achieve a deeper understanding and a higher performance in Biology 120. Fall 2012 Syllabus and Schedule of Topics.
This is a course for freshman biology majors. It includes coverage of all kingdoms of organisms stressing the evolution of solutions to the problems facing living organisms. The course focuses on the basic properties of living organisms. The web pages supporting the course use some copyrighted material, and those will be accessible by username and password provided only to students enrolled in the course. Sorry about that. Linked here is the Spring 2014 Syllabus and Schedule of Topics.
My course for non-biology majors deals with the practical, economic, and horticultural side of botany. This course in basic science fulfills the Liberal Arts Curriculum Tier 2 Science with Lab requirement and is a keystone course for the horticulture certificate program. I provide links here to the resources for many forms of this course taught in regular, summer, and winter intersession formats of various durations. The Spring 2011 financial support of the Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust in equipping space for growing plant materials for this course is most gratefully acknowledged.
Fourteen-weeks: Spring 2011,
Fall 2005
Three weeks:
Intersession 2007, Summer 2007
Six-weeks: Summer 1996
From any of these links the complete set of lecture notes, lab exercises, and so on can be accessed. For teachers outside my university who would like to use some of the lab exercises, I have a download page to obtain word processing files for those exercises.
This course provides students with first-hand experience studying tropical biology. For 35 years this course was held at the BBSR in Bermuda, but after one visit with our students to San Salvador Island, Bahamas, we were so stunned by the outstanding biota, that we are continuing to visit the Gerace Research Centre on this island rather than Bermuda! The 2013 announcement is available for our May 2013 trip. Also provided here is the Spring 2013 syllabus for the pre-travel seminar course: Oceanic Island Ecology, and the Spring 2013 syllabus for the associated field course: Tropical Biology: San Salvador, Bahamas .
This course is an introduction to botany and stresses anatomy, morphology, natural history, and evolution among organisms properly called plants. It is the more traditional botany course for biology majors and provides a strong background for good performance on the Graduate Record Exam in Biology. The official syllabus and its Fall 2013 Schedule include topical notes, lab exercises, and so on, available through links on the Schedule page.
Here's a neat poem on Botany that I ran across.
Where I teach, this is an introductory course designed to expose students to basic plant function. It is taught on an irregular schedule approximately every-other-year. The developing course materials are linked from the Spring 2014 Course Schedule.
This is the capstone course for graduating seniors. Successful writing in this course achieves the advanced writing requirement at Eastern. Students select a topic of their own interest. They read an annual review article and several primary journal articles. Each article is used in the preparation of a writing project. Projects include a resume, a summary, a critique, an op-ed article, a Power Point presentation, a professional poster, and critiques of each other's assignments along the way. The work culminates in the writing of a grant proposal on the topic which pulls the papers selected together into a coherent project narrative for future research with a budget and the final personal resume. Class activities include formal debates on a selected topic, the presentation and poster sessions, and a mock foundation panel meeting to select the winning grant proposals. Out-of-class activity includes the op-ed articles being reviewed by classes at the local middle school, and thank you notes written to each reviewer. The grading style for this course is competence-based...drafts of each project are submitted until it meets at least an acceptable level of quality, with the only deadline at the end of the semester. From here you may access some of the course materials through the Spring 2004 Syllabus. Based upon performance of the Spring 2004 class, it is unlikely that this course will be purely competence-based in the future; obviously deadlines with grades determined at those deadlines is the only leverage that elicits participation on the part of some seniors.
The Hebron Elementary School developed a "Science Buddies" program with the ECSU content providers. In April 2012 four groups of 4th through 6th grade students and their chaperones visited the ECSU greenhouse facilities with me as part of their day of activities on our campus.
The teacher participants from Hebron Elementary invited the content providers back to interact with the students who have received enhanced instruction. The teacher, Sarah Valentin, read to the students from a book provided by the grant. I used connecting information to transition to a second book. Linked here is the Power Point Slides I showed and an HTML Version for faster access and reliable display of the images shown in December 2011.
This grant-funded program provided a range of experiences for teachers to transfer to their elementary (Grades 1-4) classrooms. Projects were set up on June 27, monitored on June 31, and analyzed on the mornings of July 7 and July 8, 2011.
This program provided a sample 25-minute lecture on human vision to motivate five groups of about 100 middle and high school students each to stick with their studies and continue to college. June 8, 2011. Brief coverage appeared in the local newspaper on June 11-12.
This summer workshop provided in-service teachers with content coverage and classroom exercises in human sensory biology. Provided here is a link to the directory of materials provided to the participants.
This was a workshop for in-service elementary to middle school teachers to provide them with some expertise and a classroom exercise in photosynthesis to bring to their students. Provided here is an HTML version and the MS Word file for the simplified workshop handout perhaps appropriate for lower grades or schools with lower photocopying budgets. Also included is the download for the MS Word file for the comprehensive exercise worksheet. I am also providing a link to the Syringa vulgaris leaf cross section slide. During this three-hour workshop, the teachers learned inexpensive and easy ways to observe photosynthesis using leaf discs of Dieffenbachia and how to demonstrate the role of pigments in capturing light energy and driving starch production in whole leaves. Another goal was to integrate structure, function, and biochemistry and relate the exercise to the National Science Education Standards and the Connecticut Common Core Framework in Science. Each participating school district was provided with microscope slides, materials, and simple equipment to empower them to carry out the exercise in a classroom.
This is a workshop for Advance Placement Biology Teachers to provide them with some expertise and classroom exercises in assisting their students with the structure-function connections in plant biology (botany). Provided here is the MS Word file for the Summer 2003 Handout for the workshop, as well as its Preparation Sheet. During this three-hour workshop, the teachers examined plant anatomy slides and set up experiments that could connect the anatomy of each vegetative organ to at least one of its major functions.
This was a workshop for in-service elementary school teachers to provide them with some expertise and a classroom exercise in photosynthesis to bring to their students. Provided here is an HTML version and the MS Word file for the Summer 2003 workshop handout. During this one-hour workshop, the teachers learned inexpensive and easy ways to observe photosynthesis using leaf discs of Dieffenbachia.
My publication record is listed in my personal curriculum vitae.
Our Amorphophallus titanum bloomed at the end of August 2007. You can see the photographic and data record of our specimen. This was the 121st blooming of this plant in captivity within the historical archive maintained at the University of Wisconsin. ECSU is the 28th blooming venue in the US, and the second location of a blooming event in CT (after UCONN) according to the archive. Also in this place I hope to someday have links to a virtual tour of the greenhouse and arboretum facilities that I use in my research and teaching. I have put some references on particulates here regarding safety of exposure to greenhouse soil constituents.
For summer 2012 I have posted Chlamydomonas Protocols that Jonathan Corbett and I are using for a GFP transformation project.
I have received so many requests for information on the effects of music on plant growth, that I ended up writing a short piece on the subject. The short answer is that plants exhibit no musical taste and any student project on this subject is likely doomed to failure.
One of the most common issues in the interface between plants and humans is mowing the lawn. I provide here some Advice on Selection of a Lawn Mower. Hopefully this will assist you in the choice between a reel or rotary mower for your lawn.
I have a very simple-minded Cell Diagram under construction for your examination. This is a clickable map and so you will soon be able to click on any organelle and get to some explanation. For now, the larger organelles have been defined. The less obvious cell structures will be implemented as I get time.
There are other brief explanations on Seed Germination and Apical Dominance available.
For biology majors at my university, I have some general academic advice for a range of questions involving declaring your major, finding and changing your advisor, pre-registration, registration, add/drop, and other academic questions. There is a career-planning page and a page of advice on graduate school admission.
I have some notes and observations on being a Student and Teacher which are not necessarily original, but reflect some of my current thinking about what I am doing and what I hope my students are doing.
Someone sent me an email with an interesting observation on what constitutes a truly important person. I modified it slightly and have posted it here.
If your Airport card fails and you need a replacement, learn how to configure a Linksys WET54G Ethernet Bridge to work with your Airport Extreme Base Station.
Scientists seek to answer those questions that are answerable by rigorous application of scientific methods. But not every question can be answered through science. These questions include: Why do I exist? How should I conduct my life? What moral stand is right? Who was Jesus? Does God exist? These questions can not be approached through science, because the approaches and ultimate answers are subjective rather than objective. A scientist might choose to ignore such questions as irrelevant. But, if seeking answers to these kinds of questions, even a scientist can be a religious person who might choose to rely upon faith and prayer for guidance. A scientist might also choose to use personal ethics or other belief systems that are less formal than any organized religion to approach such questions. A moral person may be atheistic. Personally, Christian faith is my conscious choice for these kinds of questions. Some of my personal observations are accessed from my Religious Thoughts Directory Page. If Christian ideas are offensive to you, you do not need to click on this link!
The American Society of Plant Biologists has written a list of
12 Principles of Plant Science
that all high school graduates should bring to the workplace or to the university.
The ASPB has also assessed the various "educational standards" proposed nationally
and in various states to identify
gaps between the proposed standards and ASPB's set of 12 principles.
It is hoped that, through its vigilance, the ASPB can raise the expectations about
the quality and quantity of plant science education being delivered nationwide.
Botanists should not miss this amazing collection of links to botanical sites world-wide.
The Northeast District ßßß Conference was hosted by my university department on April 15, 2000. The home page for our conference is available from which participants registered their attendance and abstract, and obtained directions, maps, and other information. The program is also here to examine.
If you are looking for US contacts, here are some useful links:
US White Pages
US Yellow Pages
Email Addresses
Zip Codes
If you are looking for US Weather Information:
Weather in Willimantic
State Maps and Forecasts
The Weather Channel
Please send comments and bug reports to:
Ross Koning koningre∂gmail⋅com
I can be reached with the following addresses:
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Personal contact: Ross Koning 141 Oak Street Willimantic, CT USA 06226 Phone: 860-933-2712 E-mail: koningre∂gmail⋅com |
Professional contact: Ross Koning Biology Department, ECSU Willimantic, CT USA 06226 Phone: 860-465-5327. Fax: 860-465-5213. E-mail: koning∂easternct⋅edu |
This website was established in 1994 when I requested a website and was told that "it could not be done here." I returned to my office, used Mosaic (an early Macintosh browser) to download a copy of MacHTTP 1.0 (I think the first webserver for the Macintosh platform), and had my website operating within just a few minutes. This website is older than the official university website on our campus! The motif I have developed is based on the then-current idea of "surfing the web." I figured that the background should be a surfing sky-blue (initially #add8e6 then changed to web-safe #9cf) and the decorations should be headings spelled out in standard nautical flags that might be seen on nearby ships while surfing. The typeface and font-size are not specified except in relative ways so that your browser can specify what you find legible. The pages were later modified to meet the first university guidelines to have author mailto link, homepage link, and disclaimer link. This was done with server-side-includes to allow for easier updating to changes in the rules in the future. The initial pages were created as Microsoft Word plain text files, but these have since been edited and added-to largely with BBEdit. To the best of my ability, I keep this page compliant with W3C specifications for HTML and CSS...the rest of the website is more-or-less similarly compliant. The first pages were proofed in Mosaic, later in Netscape and Internet Explorer, but now only in Safari, Firefox, and Opera on a Macintosh. Results with other browsers, especially on Wintel PCs, may differ! In May 2008 the website was moved to an off-campus hosting service, so university disclaimers and other features demanded for pages served on-campus have been reduced or eliminated.