Abstract
Gaining practice in experimental design is a key skill for undergraduates, particularly science majors who have interests in research. To engage students in the process of experimental design, including using visualizations, we developed a laboratory module for a large enrollment introductory biology laboratory course using zebrafish as an experimental organism. This laboratory module focused on familiarizing students with scientific literature and developing biology competencies such as Identify a problem, ask a Question and formulate a hypothesis, Conduct and execute their research Plan, Analyze data and interpret results, and finally Communicate findings to different audiences. Assessing the outcomes of and learning gains from such a module requires deliberate selection of an assessment instrument that can engage students in performing an experimental design. Here, we provide a framework with practical considerations to guide faculty in developing a course based experimental design module, highlighting specific validated assessment tools to provide guidance to students as they address specific design constraints.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by a SEIRI Seed grant from IUPUI to Dr. Kathleen Marrs and Dr. James Marrs (2016-2019).
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Dasgupta, A., Sarmah, S., Marrs, J.A., Marrs, K.A. (2022). Engaging Students with Experimentation in an Introductory Biology Laboratory Module. In: Pelaez, N.J., Gardner, S.M., Anderson, T.R. (eds) Trends in Teaching Experimentation in the Life Sciences. Contributions from Biology Education Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98592-9_13
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