Course format: Three hours of laboratory and one hour
of discussion per week
Requirements: Prerequisite: or concurrent - Biol L112 and L111
Course description: L113 is a general, introductory biology
laboratory course intended for science majors. The course has several goals:
- to help students to think like scientists; i.e., how to ask questions and how to go about answering questions in a rigorous, scientific manner;
- to help students learn how to communicate scientific findings using both written and oral media;
- to integrate different disciplines (suborganismal and organismal) within biology so that students see the interrelationships.
- to learn a few basic lab techniques as well as techniques concerning data analysis.
The hour of discussion, relates the experiments done in the lab to other
aspects of biology.Required texts:
Bonner, J., J. Hengeveld, R. Holdeman, W. Ruf, and E. Rynkiewicz. 2009. L113 Laboratory Manual. Hayden-McNeil Publishing, Inc. Plymouth, MI.
Knisely, Karin. 2005. A Student Handbook for Writing in Biology; 2nd ed.; WH Freeman & Co., New York, NY
Campbell et al., eds. 2008. Biology; 8th ed.; Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., Benjamin/Cummings. Menlo Park, CA (or other intro. text that was used for L111 or L112)Weekly assignments: Weekly or bi-weekly quizzes in discussion and/or lab;
reading (and possible flow chart diagram) for lab exercise preparation.Lab write-ups : Four mini-reports; other in-class exercises; an independent project and report.
Course Information and Policies
See Lab Manual