Goldenrod+Gall+TA+Tips

TA tips:

1. The video (http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/abrahmsn/solidago/gallfly_video.html) is very useful, but it won't play on the main computer. Open it on a laptop and connect the laptop to the projector and the speaker. The whole video is too long to play in the class, and actually, you probably only want to show 0:25 - 13:00. One thing you might want to clarify with the students after the video is about the tritrophic interactions. First, you may want to address the different usage of the terms. For example, parasites are called herbivores in the video, which is not incorrect, but why and how they are parasites besides a "normal" herbivores is what you may want to discuss with the students. Second, the relationship between plants and predators (including parastoids) are not clear in the video. The indirect effects of the third trophic level on the first level is more likely to be positive in this case.

2. After the brief introduction, the students will brain storm and form their questions/hypothesis/prediction/variables. The TA has to make sure that all the questions are alright and all the variables are measurable. All the measurements have to be taken with the same methods in the same unit across groups. Students should label the galls in order to correlate all variables collected from one sample. Use the EPSON elmo projector to show the safe way to dissect a gall and how to use a caliper correctly before the students start to take the measurements. They should always measure the external variables before dissecting the galls.

3. No matter how well you instruct, the groups will record the data in different ways, more or less. It will be better if the TA types the data one by one into one file instead of combining multiple files which are constructed by different students.