Scientific Research
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Scientists from the Plantentuin Meise and UGent are researching how trees in the tropical rainforest adapt to climate change. The stomata on their leaves provide information about the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere during plant growth. Researchers count the number of stomata on the leaves and measure their size. They then compare the results of recent material with material from a hundred years ago.
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We would like as many teachers and students as possible to become acquainted with 'KIKS' and to use it in the classroom. You can express your interest through our form.
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Project Sheet KIKS
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This is a brief overview of the KIKS project with project structure and characteristics.
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The manual - also available in print
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We want to provide teachers with background knowledge about the content of this project: climate change, the biology of stomata, how plants adapt to climate change through stomata, the scientific research of UGent and Plantentuin Meise underlying this project, citizen science, what artificial intelligence (AI) is, the history of AI, its use and ethics, principles of digital images, mathematics behind algorithms, and foundations of currently most-used AI techniques. We also explain how we implemented KIKS in the classroom.
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Student Course
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With the student course, we provide an example of a possible, comprehensive trajectory that a teacher can go through with students. The trajectory includes climate change, the biology of stomata with a microscopy assignment, how plants adapt to climate change through stomata, the scientific research of UGent and Plantentuin Meise, collecting data to train a neural network, what artificial intelligence (AI) is, the history of AI, its use and ethics, principles of digital images, working with convolutions, mathematics behind the Perceptron algorithm, linear and non-linear classification of data, and foundations of machine learning.
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Curriculum Goals
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Within the KIKS project, many curriculum goals can be addressed. The teacher determines which goals are related to the project. Moreover, the project offers many opportunities to actively engage and let students learn independently, as well as teach ICT skills. KIKS can also be used for a research assignment. In the final objectives and curricula of various educational bodies, many goals can be found linking KIKS with biology, geography, and mathematics.
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Making a Nail Polish Impression of a Leaf Part
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To know the number of stomata on a part of a plant leaf, we examine the leaf surface under the microscope. We can remove a piece of the thin cuticle of the leaf for this, but for some plants, it is not so successful, for example, due to the stiffness of the leaf. However, this can be compensated by using the same method as the researchers at Plantentuin Meise, namely, taking an impression of a part of the leaf surface with transparent nail polish. The microscopic image can be photographed with a smartphone.
The teaching material is made available under the terms of a Creative Commons BY-SA license.
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