Equipment for Investigative Laboratories in Animal Physiology

该项目将大大加强威斯康星大学奥克莱尔分校生物系三门课程的研究内容：动物生物学(生物学102)、人体解剖学与生理学(生物学303)和动物生理学(生物学317)。在生物学中，102名学生将在一次调查体验的背景下被介绍感觉生理学。生物学303中建议的设备将加强几个常规的实验室练习。在生物学317课程中，该设备将用于两个实验室模块--一个检测神经功能，另一个检测肌肉功能。每个模块将持续几周，首先介绍设备以及一些基本现象和原理。在接下来的几周里，这些单元将进入探索阶段，在这个阶段，学生将探索生物制剂或研究生物文献，以得出关于生物制剂功能的某些方面的假设。然后，学生们将准备书面提案，其中将包括验证他们的假说的实验方案，以及生物学文献中的一些背景信息和评估他们的数据的计划。然后，他们将进行实验，并以科学论文的形式撰写报告。这些设备不仅将为学生提供机会，以动手的方式探索重要的、经过充分研究的动物功能原理，而且通过允许他们在超出教科书范围的水平上探索生物现象，让他们参与到科学事业中来。通过参与这些调查实验室，学生将使用和发展各种技能，这些技能不仅在科学领域，而且在其他领域也很重要。他们将发展写作技能，使用绘图和统计推理进行定量推理，解决问题，并对自己解决科学中复杂问题和处理复杂仪器的能力获得信心。

This project will substantially bolster the investigative component of three courses in the Biology Department at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire: Animal Biology (Biology 102), Human Anatomy and Physiology (Biology 303) and Animal Physiology (Biology 317). In Biology 102 students will be introduced to sensory physiology in the context of an investigative experience. Several conventional laboratory exercises will be enhanced by the proposed equipment in Biology 303. In Biology 317 the equipment will be used for two laboratory modules- one examining neural function and the other examining muscular function. Each module will last several weeks, starting with an introduction to the equipment and some of the basic phenomena and principles. In subsequent weeks, the modules will progress to an exploratory phase in which students will either probe the biological preparation or research the biological literature to develop hypotheses about some aspect of the preparation's function. Students will then prepare written proposals that will incorporate experimental protocols to test their hypotheses, along with some background information from the biological literature and a plan to evaluate their data. They will then perform their experiments and write reports in the form of a scientific paper. The equipment will not only provide students the opportunity to explore important, and well-studied, principles in animal function in a hands-on fashion, but also involve them in the scientific enterprise by allowing them to explore biological phenomena at a level that is beyond the scope of their text book. Through their participation in these investigative labs, students will use and develop various skills that are important not only in science, but other areas as well. They will develop writing skills, quantitative reasoning using plotting and statistical inference, problem solving, and gain confidence in their ability to address complex problems in science and deal with sophisticated instrumentation.