Scientific Inquiry and Process: A Design for the Times

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In this project, a team at the University of La Verne is adapting its successful strategy for teaching junior-level cell biology laboratory, called Design Your Own Experiment (DYOE). It is now being combined with activities promoting scientific literacy and the course targeted to the sophomore-level. In response to increased enrollment, the class size has increased so that laboratory equipment must be shared. When not actively working with the equipment, students develop their skills in reading, writing, and speaking about topics in cell biology through journal club, critiquing and writing about the scientific literature and the students' own written scientific work, and preparing data for presentation. The approach is also being tested in a second course, Developmental Biology. The team is developing assessment instruments to evaluate the success of the combination of DYOE and literacy work in improving overall student learning. The model is likely to be attractive to many schools experiencing enrollment increases without a corresponding increase in resources. A tangible product of the project is a laboratory manual, customizable by the adopter, in both student and instructor editions.