CUR 2002 Workshop Report
 
Title: Developing Investigative Labs in Biology Courses
 
Presenters: Jon Monroe and Jill Manske
Attendance: 30

The presenters began by describing their activities developing investigative labs in introductory and upper-division courses, and then led a wide-ranging question/answer session. Jon described an NSF
CCLI-supported set of new courses with investigative labs being implemented at James Madison University. He described the three themes that will run through the four courses connecting multiple levels of
biology and linking the courses to independent research ongoing in the Department. Jon also described a pilot course he taught in which students developed investigative labs for several of the courses. An
article in the May 2002 issue of the CUR Quarterly authored by Jon and a colleague, Carol Hurney, was distributed as well as the project summary for the CCLI grant. Jon also distributed information about two web sites he developed to accompany semester-long investigations for Plant Physiology and Molecular Biology courses at JMU. Jill described investigative introductory labs in Cell Biology that are built around
three-week modules. In the modules, students learn a technique, propose their own experiments, execute their experiments, and present their analyzed data to the class. We also discussed various models of
independent investigative labs in upper-level courses. There was a brief discussion of methods to introduce introductory students to the scientific literature. Many people described some variation of a method in which students were given problems in contemporary biology relevant to daily life (will you vaccinate your children? Should you go on a high protein diet?), and explored these problems via various types of
popular and scientific literature. Some attendants were facing resistance from their departments in implementing investigative labs. We discussed some strategies including encouraging the department to
participate in an external review.