Online laboratories can be an effective way to introduce students to lab concepts while providing flexibility, increased access, and reduced costs. However, online labs might lack the authentic research experience that can be gained by doing hands-on lab work. This study explores student perceptions of an online, inquiry-based introductory biology…

Remote camera-traps are commonly used to estimate the abundance, diversity, behavior and habitat use of wildlife in an inexpensive and nonintrusive manner. Because of the increasing use of remote-cameras in wildlife studies, students interested in wildlife biology should be exposed to the use of remote-cameras early in their academic careers.…

The discipline-based education research (DBER) report from the National Research Council (2012) highlighted the existence of a research-practice gap in science instruction in higher education and the need to identify strategies to close it. This study hypothesizes that one potential factor is instructors' access to research-based…

Primary literature is our main mode of communication in the sciences. As such, it is important for our undergraduates in the discipline to learn how to read primary literature. Incorporating primary literature into undergraduate science courses is often difficult because students are unprepared to comprehend primary articles. Learning to read and…

Louisiana Tech University has an integrated science curriculum for its mathematics, chemistry, physics, computer science, biology-research track and secondary mathematics and science education majors. The curriculum focuses on the calculus sequence and introductory labs in biology, physics, and chemistry. In the introductory biology laboratory…

Librarians instruct students where to find information, but rarely demonstrate its management, while faculty have difficulty incorporating real-time laboratory experience with library research. This paper focuses on the development of a hands-on biology laboratory experiment in an introductory course that integrates bibliographic software into the…

This experiment subjects bacteria in a food sample and an environmental sample to conditions of sublethal stress in order to assess the effectiveness of the agar overlay method to recover sublethally injured cells compared to direct plating onto the appropriate selective medium. (SAH)

Describes the construction and use of an inexpensive colorimeter that reliably estimates the phosphorus concentrations in water. Presents a two-step modification to an existing photometer. (SAH)

Presents a laboratory experiment demonstrating the binding of calcium/calmodulin to calmodulin kinase II, which is important in the metabolic and physiological activities of the cell. Uses SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE). (YDS)

Introduces a follow-up laboratory experiment demonstrating the formation change when calcium binds to calmodulin. This conformation change allows this complex to bind to a target protein. Presents the necessary information to conduct the experiment and discusses the results. (YDS)

Describes a laboratory experiment on resistance to teach about evolution and issues of misuse of antimicrobial compounds. Investigates Escherichia coli's response to treatment of triclosan, a biocide used in consumer products. (Contains 12 references.) (YDS)

Presents an activity on liquid chromatography that demonstrates the influence of mobile phase polarity on the separation of dyes with different solubilities. (YDS)

Describes a method for working with Coomassie Blue to analyze banding patterns of purified eukaryotic cell membrane proteins. (SAH)

Presents an inquiry-based science laboratory examining the effects of alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone (MSH) on skin pigmentation in the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis). (YDS)

Provides laboratory exercises that demonstrate two genetic concepts: the difference between a genetic selection and a genetic screening experiment, and the relationship between phenotype and genotype. (SAH)