Laboratory Enhancement of the Undergraduate Learning Experience in Biological Anthropology

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Most undergraduate courses in biological anthropology remain primarily lecture because of the lack of scheduled laboratory sessions and the scarcity of available materials. This department has added a new laboratory section to the most heavily attended introductory class. However, previously resources have allowed for only an adequate laboratory course, not a truly outstanding, innovative opportunity for students to gain hands-on experience with state-of-the-art materials and instrumentation including computer simulations and databases. Through this project, the department is building on existing materials to develop a series of truly involving and challenging laboratory experiences designed for both students in the introductory class and to enhance the interactive learning components of other classes in the bioanthropology curriculum. The new equipment, computers, software, measuring devices, recording materials, casts, and magnification equipment, makes possible a series of specific laboratory exercises in the introductory class which enhances students' problem-solving and cooperative learning skills, encouraging collaboration, interchange, and deeper levels of understanding of the material. Because of the special nature of the university's student body, the project has the opportunity to reach many students who come from backgrounds often marked by poor exposure to science, from the under-funded school systems of inner city Chicago and the rural areas of Illinois, Missouri, and Kentucky. These students include first generation college students, minorities, economically and socially disadvantaged students, and physically challenged and learning disabled students. Results can be disseminated through presentations at professional meetings, publications in journals, and the compilation of a lab manual which can be made available to other schools.