A series of laboratory exercises are being developed that provide students extensive hands-on experience with techniques that are currently used in cell biology research. The goal of these exercises is to give students sufficient experience with these techniques so they can look beyond the techniques and see the principles being examined and practical applications for these techniques. To this end, the labs are organized into mini-project sections lasting two-four weeks. During each section, students do several sequential steps on a single preparation. Slight variations (e.g., isolation of different plasmids, assay for different marker enzyme) make the results of each student unique, providing a sense of discovery and accomplishment. Discussion of these results enriches the overall experience and provides a format for discussing applications of these techniques. The coupling of these techniques to this lab format will help students experience the excitement of scientific research.
