The COVID-19 pandemic challenged college professors to develop remote laboratory learning experiences for
their classes. Students switched to Zoom learning at home. We had proposed mentoring a biology student
research project on the effects of thyroxine in amphibian metamorphosis. This manuscript presents our response
to the task of executing remote lab research. Since our home pool cover contained swimming gray treefrog
tadpoles and the campus was off-limits, the student agreed to use her garage as a home lab for the project.
Plastic cups, fish flakes and PolandTM spring water provided for tadpole maintenance. Optics on her cell phone
magnified tadpoles to measure tail length. A biological supply company sold pre-weighed thyroxine for the
metamorphosis experiment. The student collected and stored frozen spring water samples at home for later urea
analysis. Since spectrometry, use of hazardous chemicals and instructor supervision were required, the urea
assay was delayed until a time when safety regulations for campus lab were available. In summer 2021, she
replicated the experiment on campus with comparable results. Another cohort of students successfully
performed the same experiment on campus in 2023.
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