Hypothesis Grounded Laboratories in Physiology and Neurobiology

实验室的经验已经提高了学生在入门和论文水平的科学过程的参与。导论课程强调小组讨论、自主实验设计、定量分析和科学写作。这个项目是建立一个桥梁，论文水平的研究使用学生设计的研究项目在中级和高级课程。学生们被教导应用和发展他们在入门课上学到的技能，以制定假设和识别他们在测试假设时使用的参考框架。在为期三周的合作实验室项目、中级课程和协调的学期研究和研讨会项目中，学生们专注于区分“什么”问题（描述性科学）和“如何”问题（关注近似因果关系的机械科学）。以及“为什么”的问题（关注最终因果关系的应用科学或设计科学）。他们在生物组织的几个层次上处理假设，并使用多种数据分析方法。这种方法为课程提供了从入门级调查到高级论文项目的有效过渡。这一目标是通过协调二、三、四年级神经生物学、动物生理学、运动生理学和神经系统药物作用课程的实验室经验，以及动物生理学和神经生物学的研究和研讨会课程来实现的。

Laboratory experiences have been to enhance student participation in the scientific process at the introductory and thesis levels. Introductory courses emphasize small group discussions, self-directed experimental design, quantitative analysis, and scientific writing. This project is creatine a bridge to thesis -level research using student designed research projects in intermediate- and upper-level courses. Students are being taught to apply and develop the skills they learned in introductory classes towards hypothesis formulation and recognition of the frame of reference they use in testing a hypothesis. In collaborative laboratory projects of 3 weeks, in intermediate-level courses and in coordinated semester long research and seminar projects, students are focusing on making distinctions between "what" questions (descriptive science), "how" questions (mechanistic science that focuses on proximate causation). and "why" questions (applied or design science that focuses on ultimate causation). They are addressing hypotheses at several levels of biological organization and using multiple methods of data analysis. This approach provides the curriculum with an effective transition from introductory-level investigates to upper-level thesis project. This goal is being achieved by coordinating laboratory experiences in sophomore- junior- and senior-level courses in neurobiology, animal physiology, physiology of locomotion, and drug actions in the nervous system, as well as in research and seminar courses in animal physiology and neurobiology.