Innovations for Enhanced Instruction of Animal Nutrition and Reproductive Biology

该项目解决的问题是，学生无法获得现代、可靠的设备，这些设备主要用于动物营养学和动物繁殖与发育实验室课程的本科教学。目的是开发实验室课程，为学生提供应用生物学原理的培训，通过对科学方法的理解来解决动物农业中的问题，并提供重要的个人访问设备，使学生能够检验假设并获得现代实验程序的技术经验。该计划包括扩大这两个学科的实验班，包括关于生长羔羊营养生理学(动物营养学)的实质性课堂实验，以及一系列关于配子和胚胎生理学(动物繁殖和发育)的个人或小组项目。这两种经历都包括学生大量参与制定假设和设定具体目标；报告以科学的格式撰写。目标受众主要是动物科学专业的二年级和三年级本科生。该项目对本科教育的意义和影响与接触实验动物科学的学生数量可能大幅增加有关。所有的470名学生，加上数量适中的非专业学生，都至少参加了上述课程中的一门。对这些创新成功的评估由学生和教师进行同行评议，结果可能会在美国动物科学学会和生殖研究学会的年度会议上与科学同行交流，这两个学会都有专门针对本科生教学的会议。

The problem addressed by this project is the lack of student access to modern, dependable equipment that is primarily dedicated to undergraduate teaching of laboratory courses in Animal Nutrition and Animal Reproduction and Development. Objectives are to develop laboratory curricula that give students training in the application of biological principles to solve problems in animal agriculture through an understanding of the scientific method and to provide significant individual access to items of equipment that enable students to test hypotheses and gain technical experience with modern experimental procedures. The plan includes the expansion of the laboratory classes in the two disciplines to include a substantial class experiment on the nutritional physiology of growing lambs (Animal Nutrition) and an array of individual or small-group projects on gamete and embryo physiology (Animal Reproduction and Development). Both experiences include significant student participation in developing hypotheses and setting specific objectives; reports are written in scientific format. The target audience is predominantly sophomore and junior undergraduates majoring in Animal Science. The significance and impact of this project for undergraduate education are related to the number of students whose exposure to experimental animal science may be substantially increased. All of the 470 students, plus a moderate number of nonmajors, take at least one of the courses described. Evaluation of the success of these innovations is conducted by student and faculty peer review, and results may be communicated to scientific peers at annual meetings of the American Society of Animal Science and the Society for the Study of Reproduction, each of which has sessions devoted to undergraduate instruction.