A Total Science Experience Laboratory for Biology Majors

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James B. McGraw DUE 9552196 WV Univ Research Corp FY1995 $ 37,846 Morgantown, WV 26506 ILI - Instrumentation Project: Life Sciences Title: A Total Science Experience Laboratory for Biology Majors The Biology major at West Virginia University completes a rigorous program of study, including chemistry, physics, mathematics, statistics, and a linked set of core biology courses followed by at least five electives. Missing from this curriculum (and most science curricula) is the opportunity for every undergraduate major to experience the complete process of being a scientist. This proposal requests equipment to make such immersion in the process of science possible with the development of a Total Science Experience laboratory in the final required Biology course for majors; Ecology and Evolution. The Total Science Experience laboratory is a fifteen week laboratory unit focused on response of organisms to global and regional environmental change. In this unit, students: (1) write a pre-proposal and grant proposal (in response to a Request for Proposals), thereby learning (a) how to conduct a computer-assisted literature review, (b) how to formulate hypotheses and objectives, (c) how to design a meaningful experiment to test these hypotheses, and (d) how to formulate a convincing project plan, (2) write proposal reviews of other students' proposals and receive mock panel reviews of grant proposals, with 'funding' of some projects and others being declined (with invited resubmission), (3) execute their experiments, with full responsibility for carrying each experiment through to completion, (4) analyze experimental data, with training on use of advanced s tatistical software, (S) present results in a special student symposium (posters and oral presentations) including training on advanced graphics software, and (6) submit a full-length manuscript to a 'journal,' followed by editorial review and resubmission. A trial of this laboratory format in Spring semester, 1993 was extremely encouraging, as students experienced both the excitement and frustrations of performing original research. Obstacles to implementing this laboratory for the entire class include insufficient computational power for the statistics and graphics, and lack of controlled environment conditions to offer students for their experiments. This project will remove these obstacles and allow full implementation of the Total Science Experience laboratory.