Labstracts, Winter 2002 (page 4)

I took the plunge this past semester into student research projects at St. Francis College. Instead of a final lab exam, we had a "Laboratory Open House" instead. This was a poster session of the students’ work, along with cheese and crackers, fruit, soda, and other snacks. An invitation to the open house was sent to everyone at the college via e-mail, flyers were posted, and personal reminders were issued the day of the event. The students were quite impressive in their knowledge of their work, and were able to field some tough questions. On their own initiative, the students also gave oral presentations (some with PowerPoint) of their work immediately following the open house.

Kathy Nolan (center) with some of her students at the "Laboratory Open House".

I believe I initially obtained the self-confidence to try to undertake this project through a workshop given by Arri Eisen (1994) at Emory University. He advocated using sea urchins to demonstrate development, and then having students conduct research projects based on a variation of this pilot exercise.

The students began their research projects about a month into the semester, so that they would have some familiarity with laboratory techniques. They learned how to use spectrophotometers and pH meters, conduct paper chromatography and gel electrophoresis, and do enzyme assays. I thought it might be daunting to have too many research projects to deal with, so I began with one lab section and assigned four students to each of eight projects. Weak and strong students were placed together, which worked well.

Some of the projects were very innovative, and could lead to new teaching exercises. While conducting the project "Natural Dyes", the students discovered that mold grew on their tie-dyed T-shirts. This group also changed the pH of some of their dyes, and found that it had an effect on the "dying power" of the dyes. This group had a ball with the blenders—making their dye concoctions with all sorts of fruits and vegetables. They would bring the various combos over for me to smell (and tantalize me with---no drinking in the lab!).

Another project involved a variation on the standard antibiotic disc experiment. This group "lost" one of their members to poor grades, and thus learned the value of keeping duplicate (and clear) records. They had to repeat their work.

One group of students looked through the ABLE lab manuals to glean ideas for projects, and settled on variations of the Hill reaction (Scott and Greenberg, 1994). I went to the Carolina Biologicals catalogue and ordered a kit for them, along with an acid rain kit for another group. Requesting that students buy kits and try variations on the exercises presented with the kits is a good way to "try out a kit" ahead of time, as well as simplify reagent preparation and the procuring of materials.

The assigned lab manual (Vodopich and Moore, 2001) served as an inspiration to one group, who decided to do community succession of milk. The students, of course, added their own extras to this experiment. Another ecological project used Winogradsky columns. The students added a twist to this old standby by comparing glass columns versus opaque columns.

Plant experiments were a popular choice, probably because we had not yet worked with invertebrates. Being primarily a small teaching college, we do not have an animal room or extensive research facilities. We do, however, have some extra space for student projects, including space with great natural sunlight for plants. One group grew organic lima beans in different types of soil, and did soil analysis on the pots weekly for a month. They noted that the lima beans had nodules and researched nitrogen fixation. The plants grew very quickly and I may grow them for an ecology class to further investigate the symbiotic relationship between root nodules and plants.

The students were self-limited in the amount of time that they put into their projects. They would get together during activity hours, and the more ambitious students even came in (once!) at 7 A.M.

To sum up, these are the skills that I think the students learned while working on these projects:

I am already experiencing the after-effects of this project. They are conceiving ideas for their topics much more quickly, and some are with an added degree of sophistication. They want pond water from the ponds near my house (yes, we have ponds in the Bronx!), and they want to isolate DNA from organisms and do the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). They are asking such questions as, "Can I dry out that culture of Chlamydomonas and cause them to form zygospores?" (I have no idea, but they will find out!)

Eisen, A. 1995. A holistic approach to teaching a laboratory, using sea urchin development as an example system. Pages 25-32, in: Tested studies for laboratory teaching, Volume16 (C.A. Goldman, Editor). Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual Conference of the Association for Biology Laboratory Education (ABLE), 273 pages.

Scott, N. and B. Greenberg. 1995. Measurement of photosynthetic activity in plant cell fractions. Pages 71-80, in: Tested studies for laboratory teaching, Volume16 (C.A. Goldman, Editor). Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual Conference of the Association for Biology Laboratory Education (ABLE), 273 pages.

Vodopich, D. and R. Moore. 2001. Biology Laboratory Manual. 6^th ed. McGraw Hill


Winter 2002 Page 4

Laboratory Research Experiences at St. Francis College, Fall 2001 *Kathleen A. Nolan*
I took the plunge this past semester into student research projects at St. Francis College. Instead of a final lab exam, we had a "Laboratory Open House" instead. This was a poster session of the students’ work, along with cheese and crackers, fruit, soda, and other snacks. An invitation to the open house was sent to everyone at the college via e-mail, flyers were posted, and personal reminders were issued the day of the event. The students were quite impressive in their knowledge of their work, and were able to field some tough questions. On their own initiative, the students also gave oral presentations (some with PowerPoint) of their work immediately following the open house. Kathy Nolan (center) with some of her students at the "Laboratory Open House". I believe I initially obtained the self-confidence to try to undertake this project through a workshop given by Arri Eisen (1994) at Emory University. He advocated using sea urchins to demonstrate development, and then having students conduct research projects based on a variation of this pilot exercise. The students began their research projects about a month into the semester, so that they would have some familiarity with laboratory techniques. They learned how to use spectrophotometers and pH meters, conduct paper chromatography and gel electrophoresis, and do enzyme assays. I thought it might be daunting to have too many research projects to deal with, so I began with one lab section and assigned four students to each of eight projects. Weak and strong students were placed together, which worked well. Some of the projects were very innovative, and could lead to new teaching exercises. While conducting the project "Natural Dyes", the students discovered that mold grew on their tie-dyed T-shirts. This group also changed the pH of some of their dyes, and found that it had an effect on the "dying power" of the dyes. This group had a ball with the blenders—making their dye concoctions with all sorts of fruits and vegetables. They would bring the various combos over for me to smell (and tantalize me with---no drinking in the lab!). Another project involved a variation on the standard antibiotic disc experiment. This group "lost" one of their members to poor grades, and thus learned the value of keeping duplicate (and clear) records. They had to repeat their work. One group of students looked through the ABLE lab manuals to glean ideas for projects, and settled on variations of the Hill reaction (Scott and Greenberg, 1994). I went to the Carolina Biologicals catalogue and ordered a kit for them, along with an acid rain kit for another group. Requesting that students buy kits and try variations on the exercises presented with the kits is a good way to "try out a kit" ahead of time, as well as simplify reagent preparation and the procuring of materials. The assigned lab manual (Vodopich and Moore, 2001) served as an inspiration to one group, who decided to do community succession of milk. The students, of course, added their own extras to this experiment. Another ecological project used Winogradsky columns. The students added a twist to this old standby by comparing glass columns versus opaque columns. Plant experiments were a popular choice, probably because we had not yet worked with invertebrates. Being primarily a small teaching college, we do not have an animal room or extensive research facilities. We do, however, have some extra space for student projects, including space with great natural sunlight for plants. One group grew organic lima beans in different types of soil, and did soil analysis on the pots weekly for a month. They noted that the lima beans had nodules and researched nitrogen fixation. The plants grew very quickly and I may grow them for an ecology class to further investigate the symbiotic relationship between root nodules and plants. The students were self-limited in the amount of time that they put into their projects. They would get together during activity hours, and the more ambitious students even came in (once!) at 7 A.M. To sum up, these are the skills that I think the students learned while working on these projects: How to work together in groups How to make hypotheses How to fail and start over again How do conduct experiments that yield interpretable data How to be empowered to think about science in a new way and ask more "What if?" questions. Here is what I learned: That students can conduct research projects, and that it was not overwhelming for me That students are much more enthusiastic about their own and other group projects than they are about anything that I could present to them in lab I am already experiencing the after-effects of this project. They are conceiving ideas for their topics much more quickly, and some are with an added degree of sophistication. They want pond water from the ponds near my house (yes, we have ponds in the Bronx!), and they want to isolate DNA from organisms and do the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). They are asking such questions as, "Can I dry out that culture of Chlamydomonas and cause them to form zygospores?" (I have no idea, but they will find out!) Literature Cited: Eisen, A. 1995. A holistic approach to teaching a laboratory, using sea urchin development as an example system. Pages 25-32, in: Tested studies for laboratory teaching, Volume16 (C.A. Goldman, Editor). Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual Conference of the Association for Biology Laboratory Education (ABLE), 273 pages. Scott, N. and B. Greenberg. 1995. Measurement of photosynthetic activity in plant cell fractions. Pages 71-80, in: Tested studies for laboratory teaching, Volume16 (C.A. Goldman, Editor). Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual Conference of the Association for Biology Laboratory Education (ABLE), 273 pages. Vodopich, D. and R. Moore. 2001. Biology Laboratory Manual. 6^th ed. McGraw Hill

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