Integrating Photosynthesis, Respiration, Biomass Partitioning, and Plant Growth: Developing a Microsoft Excel®-based Simulation Model of Wisconsin Fast Plant (Brassica rapa, Brassicaceae) Growth with Undergraduate Students

¹ Department of Biology, Beloit College, Beloit, WI 53511, USA
² Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
³ Department of Biological Sciences, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL 60607, USA
⁴ Veterinary Technology Distance Learning Program, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
⁵ Freeman School of Business, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA
⁶ Colegio de Educación Infantil y Primaria Doctor López Rosat, Valencia, 46018, SPAIN
⁷ Parker Junior High School, Flossmoor, IL 60422, USA

^⋆ Corresponding author. E-mail: grossman@beloit.edu

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the development of a simple model of carbon flow during plant growth. The model was developed by six undergraduate students and their instructor as a project in a plant ecophysiology course. The paper describes the structure of the model including the equations that were used to implement it in Excel®, the plant growth experiments that were conducted to obtain information for parameterizing and testing the model, model performance, student responses to the modeling project, and potential uses of the model by other students.