BSC 2011L Lab Manual

The nature of science, cellular development, genetics, evolution and ecology are the major concepts explored in very specific activities and experiments in this laboratory manual. The activities were developed by a team of faculty, staff and graduate students and are modified over time when needed to keep current, and to improve the activities when necessary. The units serve to compliment a lecture course component which covers these topics broadly and in detail. Instead, the lab has a narrower focus on activities to empower student learning by practicing hands-on activities on a weekly basis. The course starts out with a discussion of what science is and what it is not. This serves as a basis to challenge students to look at what they read, and think critically about what they read in biological literature. They will explore several units independently through scientific inquiry, doing scientific research, and conducting formal experiments including data collection and analysis, making conclusions using biostatistics, and considering future research directions as with any other scientific research. This is not a writing course, but students learn how to: read and critically assess scientific papers; paraphrase, conduct peer review, incorporate and cite previous studies to support their findings. In essence, writing is used as a tool to enhance student learning.