GUIDED DEVELOPMENT OF INDEPENDENT INQUIRY IN AN ANATOMY/PHYSIOLOGY LABORATORY
- 1 December 2003
- journal article
- Published by American Physiological Society in Advances in Physiology Education
- Vol. 27 (4), 230-240
- https://doi.org/10.1152/advan.00002.2003
Abstract
Student-originated projects are increasingly utilized in the biology laboratory as a means of engaging students and revitalizing the laboratory experience by allowing them one to two weeks to collect data on a manipulated variable of their choice by use of an introduced technique. Such experiments fail as good models of investigative learning when they place more emphasis on novel ideas than on hypothesis testing, experimental design, statistical rigor, or use of the primary literature. In addition, students get used to the routine and tend to design the same type of simplistic experiments in each course unless challenged. Laboratories in a Comparative Anatomy and Physiology course at the University of St. Thomas were reorganized to encourage the development of investigative skills in a stepwise fashion throughout the semester. Initial labs concentrated on experimental design and statistical analysis, then use of the primary literature in interpretation of the data was emphasized, and finally, students were asked to design their experiments and analyze their data on the basis of models from the primary literature.Keywords
This publication has 6 references indexed in Scilit:
- AN INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING MODEL FOR AN EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGY LABORATORY COURSEAdvances in Physiology Education, 2001
- Renal response to volume expansion: learning the experimental approach in the context of integrative physiology.Advances in Physiology Education, 2000
- Promoting Active Learning in the Life Science Classroom: Defining the IssuesAnnals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1993
- The influence of laboratoy experimental work on concept acquisition in a medical physiology course with implications for curriculum deliberations and instructional designMedical Teacher, 1990
- Water balance during saline imbibition in the mongolian gerbil (meriones unguiculatus)Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Physiology, 1988
- A comparison of the effects of saline imbibition and water deprivation on the composition of the blood, urine and pituitary neural lobe of the gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus)Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Physiology, 1980