Measuring and Advancing Experimental Design Ability in an Introductory Course without Altering Existing Lab Curriculum.

ABSTRACT: Introductory biology courses provide an important opportunity to prepare students for future courses, yet existing cookbook labs, although important in their own way, fail to provide many of the advantages of semester-long research experiences. Engaging, authentic research experiences aid biology students in meeting many learning goals. Therefore, overlaying a research experience onto the existing lab structure allows faculty to overcome barriers involving curricular change. Here we propose a working model for this overlay design in an introductory biology course and detail a means to conduct this lab with minimal increases in student and faculty workloads. Furthermore, we conducted exploratory factor analysis of the Experimental Design Ability Test (EDAT) and uncovered two latent factors

SUBMITTER: Shanks RA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5524466 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature