RESEARCH LINK-The Development of Research-based Labs for Introductory Biology and a WWW Site to Support Nation-wide Exchange and Discussion of Experimental Data

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The Council on Undergraduate Research, a national organization of almost 4,000 members that provides support and networking for faculty at over 850 primarily undergraduate institutions, will provide the leadership for organizing RESEARCH-LlNK--a national center for the development and exchange of research-based labs for introductory biology. RESEARCH-LINK will establish a formal network of undergraduate students and faculty that will permit collaboration in designing experiments, sharing data, and interpreting results via a WWW HomePage. Currently, a major obstacle preventing the introduction of research-based labs is the lack of a national clearinghouse continuously accessible to faculty, that provides models of experimental systems and field-tested laboratories that can be easily incorporated into a general biology laboratory that will allow students, during 3-4 lab sessions, to think and act like scientists. RESEARCH-LINK will permit faculty to communicate directly with authors of field-tested labs to work out problems and answer inquiries. The network will include faculty peers on the campuses of primarily undergraduate institutions across the country and selected mentor/consultants from the cadre of those now taking the lead in building and sustaining curricula with a strong research-based component. A series of workshops will select, develop, and disseminate a group of field-tested RESEARCH CORES that will consist of a collection of research-based labs in genetics, cell biology, plant and animal physiology, ecology/behavior, and evolution that faculty can select for integration into an introductory biology course. The project will be guided by the overriding principle that 3-4 weeks of any standard general biology laboratory should be devoted to teaching the nature of science and introducing students to the thought processes and methods of science such as formulating and testing hypotheses, designing and conducting experiments, analyzing and interpreting data, and communicating results.