Salinity Stress Virtual Lab: Vicia faba (Broad Bean)
Description
In this interactive virtual lab, you run a complete 24-day salinity stress experiment on broad bean (Vicia faba) yourself. You disinfect and sow the seeds, prepare and verify a 150 mM NaCl solution, and irrigate control and salt-treated plants. As the days pass, you watch chlorosis, wilting and necrosis develop in the leaves, stems and roots. You then examine stomata and plasmolysed cells under the microscope and measure relative water content, chlorophyll and electrolyte leakage. Finally, you analyse your data with a t-test. Checkpoint quizzes follow each stage, and you earn a certificate when you pass the final quiz.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this lab, students will be able to explain the two-phase (osmotic and ionic) model of salinity stress and design a controlled plant stress experiment. They will be able to prepare saline solutions accurately and tell healthy plants from salt-stressed plants by their visible and microscopic symptoms. They will also be able to measure growth, relative water content, chlorophyll content and membrane damage, and use a Student’s t-test to decide whether to accept or reject the null hypothesis.