This course is required of all Plant Sciences majors. This course routinely includes students from Forestry, Animal Sciences, Agricultural Education, Agribusiness Management, Biochemistry and Environmental Sciences. Average enrollment is 53 students. This course provides an introduction to the fundamentals of plant physiology, growth and development. I include concepts from botany, soil science, chemistry, and biochemistry to understand how plants make a living in their environments. The lecture portion of this course is given as a combination of powerpoint presentations and classroom discussions where student participation is essential to the learning process. The laboratory portion of the course is divided into two foci. Lab sessions in the first half of the semester involve hands-on experiments that explore such topics as photosynthesis, mineral nutrition, plant-water relations, plant growth and metabolism. In the second half of the semester, students form research teams and conduct a plant growth experiment in the greenhouse where they learn experimental design, data collection, statistical analysis and how to present research results.