Fundulus Melanophores: from Physiology to Cell Biology
Background color adaptation in poikilotherms is a great subject for investigative physiology course. The physiological color change is relatively fast and reversible. Moreover, the control mechanisms ...

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A Field Study of the Ant Trail Phenomenon
In this exercise, students place food at various distances from an ant hill or nest. Ants are then observes as they find the bait and lead other ants to it. At the completion of the exercise, students...

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A Problem Solving Approach to Animal Physiology
A problem solving (PS) emphasis was used in a course for 15 students, sophomore through doctoral. Our working definition of PS included the ability to resolve a situation by knowing and recognizing pe...

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Active Transport in Insect Malpighian Tubules
The Malpighian tubules of insects are an excellent model for examining the properties of secretion in a transporting epithelium. In this exercise students expose tubules from cockroaches or crickets t...

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Allometry: Size and its consequences or…Why aren’t there 20 foot tall ants?
Evolution has resulted in changes in the sizes and forms of organisms. Everything about the biology of an animal, including its physiology, anatomy, and ecology, is influenced by its body size. Freque...

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Alternative Strategies to the Use of Vertebrates in Undergraduate Physiology Labs
There are many reasons to seek alternatives to the use of vertebrates, including cost and concerns with use of vertebrates in undergraduate laboratories. This major workshop explores examples of alter...

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An Analysis of Bone/Muscle Movement
By manipulating a simple kinematic model representing the leg and foot, students can get hands on information about the interaction of bones and muscles in humans. Having worked with the model, they t...

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An Economical Method for Generating and Delivering an Even Flow of CO₂ Gas
The laboratory exercise “Carbonic Anhydrase” (modified from Maren, 1960) in conjunction with the “Oxygen Dissociation” lab gives the student exposure to various aspects of the gas transport function o...

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An Examination of the Influence of Diet on the Growth,Development and Survival of Manduca sexta
In this multi-week lab, students are asked to design and implement an experiment to investigate how nutrition influences the growth, development and survival of Manduca sexta.

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An Inexpensive Pressure Transducer for Measuring Aerobic and Anaerobic Respiration
This abstract describes a pressure transducer developed to measure metabolic rate. Metabolic rate is commonly measured by quantifying the amount of gas (either carbon dioxide or oxygen) that is releas...

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