📅 Weekly Course Schedule¶

This schedule details the weekly topics, readings, lab exercises, and assignments for the 12-week undergraduate track.

🗺️ Week-by-Week Calendar¶

Topics & Focus: Introduction to astrobotany history; the importance of plants in closed-loop life support systems; introduction to the Open Science/FAIR data ethos.
Required Readings:
🌱🚀 Grow Plants in Space
Introduction to AstroBotany & Data Sharing

Topics & Focus: Principles of crop selection (microgreens); lighting parameters (PPFD, spectrum); setup and calibration of a scientific photography station.
Required Readings:
Stage I: Scientific Photography
Space Biology Photography Guide
Stage II: What's Your Favorite Microgreen?
Table 2: Microgreen Growth Rates
Practical Lab Activity: Assemble the photography station (contrasting background, scale bar, soft box lighting). Photograph a reference object and verify alignment. Select 2 microgreen varieties for the terrestrial growth experiment.
Deliverable: Upload a calibrated reference photograph to your lab journal demonstrating proper scale bar placement and color balance.

Topics & Focus: Germination biology; terrestrial growth media (soil vs. coconut coir vs. hydroponic mats); experimental controls and baseline parameter documentation.
Required Readings:
Stage III: Growth of Microgreens in Terrestrial Environments
Green Area Index with PlantCV
Practical Lab Activity: Plant seeds of your selected microgreens. Position trays under lights and capture Day 0 baseline photographs. Run basic PlantCV testing locally or on Colab.
Deliverable: Complete the Day 0 setup entry, including exact species names, seeding density, lighting cycle, and initial photo.

Topics & Focus: Gravity perception in plants (statoliths, starch-statolith hypothesis, Cholodny-Went model); root vs. shoot tropisms; introduction to agar growth plates.
Required Readings:
Stage IV: Microgreen Development and Gravitropic Response
Gravity and Mechanical Sensing in Plants
Practical Lab Activity: Germinate seeds vertically on plant-based agar or wet filter paper in Petri dishes. On Day 3, rotate the plates 90 degrees and document the gravitropic reorientation kinetics at multiple intervals.
Deliverable: Log reorientation images taken at T=0h, T=2h, T=6h, and T=24h post-rotation in your lab notebook.

Topics & Focus: Image analysis theory; extracting quantitative metrics from plant biology photographs; computing Green Area Index (GAI) and root mapping algorithms.
Required Readings:
Measuring Root System Architecture
Tools & Software
Practical Lab Activity: Run your Week 3 reorientation photos through Fiji/SmartRoot or the PlantCV pipeline to extract root length, root tip angle, and hypocotyl growth rates.
Deliverable: Submit a structured table containing raw phenotypic data (root angle and growth rate) extracted from your images.

Topics & Focus: Statistical analysis in plant biology (ANOVA, t-tests, standard error); data validation and ingestion; collaborative science tools.
Required Readings:
Assessment & Learning Gains
Practical Lab Activity: Clean the group dataset, run an ANOVA or t-test comparing the gravitropic response rates of your varieties, and upload the finalized, formatted dataset to Epicollect5.
Deliverable: Upload proof of your Epicollect5 data submission and paste the output of your statistical analysis (including p-values and graphs) in your lab journal.

Topics & Focus: Writing research proposals; formulating hypotheses; experimental design variations (e.g., adding abiotic stress, light quality variations, or chemical treatments).
Required Readings:
Project Management Page
Practical Lab Activity: Work in groups to draft your midterm proposals. Peer-review other groups' experimental designs and resource budgets.
Deliverable: Submit your Midterm Independent Project Proposal (max 3 pages, including hypothesis, methods, safety checklist, and timeline).

Topics & Focus: Plant hormones (auxin, cytokinin, gibberellin); tissue culture and callus induction; stem cell biology.
Required Readings:
Stage V: Auxin and Plant Cloning
Practical Lab Activity: Prepare sterile growth medium containing auxin (2,4-D). Dissect microgreen seedlings under sterile conditions and place explants on callus induction medium.
Deliverable: Log tissue setup details (sterilization workflow, hormone concentrations) and insert baseline microscope images of explants.

Topics & Focus: Clinostats and Random Positioning Machines (RPMs); physics of simulated microgravity; 3D root mapping challenges.
Required Readings:
Stage VI: Micro-Gravi-tropism Assays
Practical Lab Activity: Mount petri dishes onto a 2D clinostat or RPM (such as the CoSE SciSpinner). Set rotation parameters and monitor growth adaptation overnight compared to vertical controls.
Deliverable: Document simulated microgravity rotation rates, exposure times, and comparative root-curvature plots.

Topics & Focus: Functional-Structural Plant Modeling (FSPM); simulating auxin gradients; RNA-seq overview and transcriptomic analysis.
Required Readings:
Stage VII: Hormone Transport Modeling
Stage VIII: Root Modeling
Stage IX: Plant Modeling
Stage X: Mining RNA-seq
Stage XI: Mining Membrane-based Interactome Database
Practical Lab Activity: Run computational models to simulate plant hormone transport and root water flow. Query spaceflight transcriptomics datasets using the databases linked in Stage X.
Deliverable: Submit a modeling write-up illustrating how simulated cellular auxin transporter distributions affect root tip hormone concentration gradients.

Topics & Focus: Science communication; designing scientific slides; structuring arguments and conclusions from experimental data.
Required Readings: None. Focus on analyzing individual project data.
Practical Lab Activity: Analyze data collected from independent experiments (Unit 3). Assemble final presentation slides and present findings to the class.
Deliverable: Submit your group's presentation slide deck (PDF or link).

Topics & Focus: Writing a scientific manuscript; career pathways in astrobotany, plant biology, and space sciences.
Required Readings:
Literature & References
Practical Lab Activity: peer-review draft manuscripts, finalize figures, compile the collective course database.
Deliverable: Submit your Final Laboratory Report (formatted as a scientific paper, including Abstract, Intro, Methods, Results, Discussion, and References).