Smartphones for Teaching Plant Movement

Presented here is a simple teaching lab to illustrate the dynamic qualities of plant movement using smartphones to create movies of gravitropism and circumnutation. Within as little as 90 minutes, students can observe dramatic changes in plant position using the easy-to-grow, simple genetic model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana. Student assessment revealed that 64 percent of students stated that this lab increased their interest in plants; and interestingly, 46 percent of students showed their movies to individuals who were not associated with the teaching lab, strongly suggesting that this teaching method can be used to propagate interest in plants to individuals in society at large.