This project will substantially bolster the investigative component of three courses in the Biology Department at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire: Animal Biology (Biology 102), Human Anatomy and Physiology (Biology 303) and Animal Physiology (Biology 317). In Biology 102 students will be introduced to sensory physiology in the context of an investigative experience. Several conventional laboratory exercises will be enhanced by the proposed equipment in Biology 303. In Biology 317 the equipment will be used for two laboratory modules- one examining neural function and the other examining muscular function. Each module will last several weeks, starting with an introduction to the equipment and some of the basic phenomena and principles. In subsequent weeks, the modules will progress to an exploratory phase in which students will either probe the biological preparation or research the biological literature to develop hypotheses about some aspect of the preparation's function. Students will then prepare written proposals that will incorporate experimental protocols to test their hypotheses, along with some background information from the biological literature and a plan to evaluate their data. They will then perform their experiments and write reports in the form of a scientific paper. The equipment will not only provide students the opportunity to explore important, and well-studied, principles in animal function in a hands-on fashion, but also involve them in the scientific enterprise by allowing them to explore biological phenomena at a level that is beyond the scope of their text book. Through their participation in these investigative labs, students will use and develop various skills that are important not only in science, but other areas as well. They will develop writing skills, quantitative reasoning using plotting and statistical inference, problem solving, and gain confidence in their ability to address complex problems in science and deal with sophisticated instrumentation.
