Implementation of Research Oriented Laboratories in the Biology General Education Program

该项目的目标是在匡威学院（Converse College）的细胞生物学入门课程中实施一系列渐进的实验室。匡威学院是一所女子学院，服务于南卡罗来纳州和美国东南部的大部分地区。导论课程现在是通识教育计划（GEP）的一部分，因为生物系觉得有必要为准备成为K-12教师的学生提供这样的课程。与所有GEP课程一样，这门入门级课程面向教育专业的学生，并将满足未来教师必须达到的生物科学认证要求。此外，本课程是生物学专业课程的入门课程，也是高级生物学课程的先决条件。该项目的主要重点是通过提供支持，强调实验室中的实验和调查形式，来改进课程的实验室部分。这种形式改编自D'Avanzo和McNeal在《学生主动科学：大学科学创新模式》（桑德斯学院出版社）中描述的“引导探究”方法。在整个实验室里，学生们都在使用同样的新学习模式（寄生毛虫），这样他们就能感觉到自己的学习取得了进步。学生被要求观察、制定和检验关于学习模式的不同方面的假设，而不是简单地为了这样做而应用一种技术。通过这种方式，学生可以更加熟悉科学过程，接触到更复杂但常用的技术，并探索各种重要的生物学概念，从体内平衡到细胞-细胞通讯。在这门课程中增加和完成实验工作将帮助那些从事k-12年级教学的学生更好地理解科学过程，同时熟悉细胞生物学的新技术和基本技术，这是一门在公立学校教育中越来越重要的学科。这些练习也指导生物学专业的学生在大二或大三时进行潜在的独立研究项目。这种学习模式引人入胜、安全、迷人，而且维持起来相当便宜。因此，这种模式有可能被带到南卡罗来纳州的k-12教室。人们相信，这种研究性的方法将改善k-12学生对科学的态度，从而改善他们给自己学生的科学印象。

The goal of this project is to implement a progressive series of laboratories in an introductory cellular biology course at Converse College, an all-women's college serving the state of South Carolina and much of the Southeast United States. The introductory course is now a part of the general education program (GEP) because the Biology Department felt a need to offer such a course to its students preparing to be K-12 teachers. As in all of GEP courses, this introductory level course serves education majors and will satisfy the biological science requirement that prospective teachers must meet for certification. Further, this course serves an introductory course in the biology majors' curriculum and is a prerequisite for upper level biology classes. The main focus of the project is to improve the laboratory portion of the course by providing support to emphasize an experimental and investigative format in the laboratory. This format is adapted from the "guided inquiry" approach described by D'Avanzo and McNeal in Student-Active Science: Models of Innovation in College Science (Saunders College Publishing). Throughout the laboratories, students are using the same novel model of study (a parasitized caterpillar) so that they perceive a progression in their studies. Students are asked to observe, formulate, and test hypotheses concerning different aspects of the model of study rather than to simply apply a technique for the sake of doing so. In this way students become more familiar with the scientific process, are exposed to more sophisticated, yet commonly used, technologies, and explore various important biological concepts ranging from homeostasis to cell-cell communication. The addition and completion of experimental work in this course will help those students who spend their careers teaching students in grades k-12 to better understand the scientific process while becoming familiar with new and basic technologies in cell biology, a subject that is becoming increasingly important in public school education. These exercises also guide biology majors towards potential independent research projects that they initiate during their sophomore or junior years. The model of study is engaging, safe, fascinating, and rather inexpensive to maintain. As a result, this model has the potential to be taken to the k-12 classroom in South Carolina. It is believed this investigative approach will improve pre-k-12 students' attitudes toward science and, therefore, the impression of science that they will give to their own students.