 eaching laboratories in which students conduct their own investigations
can take many different forms, according to professor Marshall Sundberg,
a botanist at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. An instructor might
give students information and ask them to solve specific problems. A series
of "What happens if. . .?" questions may lead students to discover
basic concepts. Or students may simply be given some preparation and materials
and then be asked to design and carry out their own independent explorations.
The result in practice has been a profusion of approaches:
- At Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, the biology department has adopted
an approach in its introductory courses that resembles the "principal
investigator" system of research. Small groups of students design
and conduct experiments. Each group designates one person to draft a paper
presenting the results, with the other group members reviewing and revising
the paper. In this way all biology students write about 10 scientific papers
by the end of their sophomore year.
- At the University of Chicago — where every undergraduate takes a year
of biology, including a laboratory — the new $40 million Biological Sciences
Learning Center was designed to blur the distinction between research and
education. Built as a "one-room schoolhouse" for biology, the
building combines classrooms, teaching laboratories, and research laboratories,
all arrayed around a light-filled atrium where undergraduates, medical
students, and graduate students sprawl on sofas and gather around tables
to eat and talk. "The faculty here believe that biology is an experimental
science, so that you can't teach biology to either majors or non-majors
without laboratories," says professor Jose Quintans, master of the
biological sciences collegiate division.
- At the University of Washington, the purchase of videomicroscopy equipment
and a set of computers for data acquisition has catalyzed a new approach
to teaching laboratories. "A private activity — looking down a microscope
— has become a social one of watching a video screen," says biology
professor John Palka. "The group situation automatically generates
student involvement and discussion at a much deeper level than 'Is this
what I'm supposed to be seeing?'"
- Beloit College professor John Jungck and his colleagues at other institutions
have been leading the effort to build the BioQUEST Library, a collection
of computer-based tools, simulations, and textual materials that support
collaborative, open-ended investigations in biology. Developed at campuses
around the country, each module in the library simulates or explains a
different biological system, allowing students to analyze massive amounts
of data and visualize the relationships among variables. Each module must
involve students actively in learning, go through an intensive peer review
process, and be proven effective in the classroom. "My greatest joy
as a teacher," Jungck says, "is to get an evaluation that says
something like, 'I became a good problem solver in this class.'"
Though varied, investigative laboratories share a few key elements. They
shift the emphasis from the professor as teacher to the student as learner.
"If we're about anything," says Jungck, "it's about putting
students first."
Instructors also assume a different role in investigative laboratories.
Instead of being the primary source of information for the class, a faculty
member or teaching assistant becomes a mentor, helping students work through
problems. "Faculty members have to be willing to give up the traditional
authority that an instructor has in class," says Sundberg of LSU. "That's
the biggest barrier to investigative labs, more so than money or time. It's
probably the largest reason why the technique hasn't taken off in the past
20 years."
Faculty members also need time to develop new laboratories and learn
new teaching styles. Open-ended laboratories are not necessarily more demanding
of faculty hours than traditional laboratories, according to instructors
who have made the switch. But they take time to develop and often must be
revised to reflect new developments.
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University of Chicago students Hugh Kim, Joy Hatzidakis, and John Jakob
talk in the new Biological Sciences Learning Center, which was designed
to blur the distinctions between research and education.
 The BioQUEST library is among
many new resources available to biology educators.
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