Using Student-Produced Time-Lapse Plant Movies to communicate concepts in Plant Biology

Why do students think plants are “boring”? One factor may be that they do not see plant movement in real (i.e., their) time. This attitude may negatively impact their understanding of plant biology. Time-lapse movies of plants allow students to see the sophistication of movements involved in both organ development and orientation. The objective of this project was to develop simple methods to capture image sequences for lab analysis and for converting to movies. The technology for making time-lapse movies is now easily attainable and fairly inexpensive, allowing its use for skill levels from grade school through college undergraduates. In addition, this type of exercise can be expanded for inquiry-based or service-learning projects. Time-lapse movie exercises have been integrated into an undergraduate plant physiology course and also used in outreach activities