Acquisition of Updated Equipment for an Integrated Cell and Molecular Biology Laboratory

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Until recently, the upper-level Biology core curriculum consisted of four separate lecture courses in Cell Chemistry, Cell Biology, Genetics, and Developmental Biology, along with their associated laboratories. This strategy for laboratory experience was expensive in terms of faculty time, was redundant in terms of course content, and did not provide students with an adequate view of the integrated nature of cellular, molecular, and developmental biology. The department has since replaced the four separate (1-credit) laboratories with an integrated 2-semester (4-credit) laboratory sequence. All Biology majors enroll in Lab I: Experimental Biology, where they learn basic biotechnological methods. They then have the choice of enrolling in one of three second-level labs where they use the techniques learned in Lab I to carry out investigations in an area of their interest. The Department of Biological Sciences has purchased equipment and supplies to establish and upgrade the microscopy, computing, and spectrophotometry resources available. As a result, students are able to get hands-on laboratory experience with equipment that accurately reflects present-day scientific investigation. All of the protocols and reagents developed in these labs are being made available for distribution to colleagues at other institutions. In addition, the students, as part of their second semester projects, post summaries of their project results on the World Wide Web page established for this course. Students are encouraged to further their research experiences, as they have in the past, through summer projects in individual investigator's laboratories.