PLPA 2013 - Mushrooms, Molds, and More

Spring. 3 credits. Letter grades only.

Fulfills 3 credits of introductory biology for selected majors in ARTS and CALS. Limited to 24 students per sec.

G. W. Hudler.

Lectures and exams for this course are the same as those in PLPA 2010. However, students in PLPA 2013 also participate in a weekly 55-minute discussion section where they grow mushrooms and other fungi in culture, learn about contemporary classification of fungi, see examples of major taxa growing on natural substrates, and determine whether suspect pathogens really can kill agricultural crops. Students also teach their peers about the fungus world with presentations of their own creation. (CALS non-life science majors can receive college physical/life science distribution credits upon completion of this course but they must register for a letter grade. This course is also on the Arts and Sciences list of supplementary science courses and can be used to satisfy Physical and Biological Sciences distribution requirements in AS.)

Outcome 1: Explain, evaluate, and effectively interpret factual claims, theories and assumptions in the student’s discipline(s) (especially in one or more of the college’ priority areas of land grant-agricultural sciences, applied social sciences, environmental sciences, and/or life sciences) and more broadly in the sciences and humanities.

Outcome 2: Find, access, critically evaluate, and ethically use information.

Outcome 3: Communicate effectively through writing, speech, and visual information.