Meeting Abstract
Principles of Biology Laboratory, an undergraduate introductory biology course at the University of Akron, is inquiry-based and encourages students to design their own experiments/test hypotheses based on faculty research. The laboratory exercises are broken down into two-part modules: (1) students are introduced to new research concepts and laboratory techniques that inform a proposal of an independently-designed research project, and (2) students execute their designed experiment including the collection, analysis, interpretation, and summarization of their data. Historically, however, students routinely struggle to identify the broader impacts of their work, apply what they learned, and forge connections between basic and applied biological research. Considering students’ favorite laboratory exercises are those that utilize live animals and that the use of live animals in teaching increases student motivation, we designed an inquiry-based learning exercise built upon the adhesive lizard research of Integrated Bioscience faculty, Dr. Peter Niewiarowski and Dr. Ali Dhinojwala. In this laboratory exercise, students measure shear adhesion of brown anoles on a smooth acetate control and propose an experiment to alter shear adhesion by manipulating the surface properties, environment, or toe pad properties. In the second part of the laboratory, students execute their experimental design and complete a data interpretation exercise based on published work in the field of lizard adhesion. We expect this exercise to not only increase student retention of basic experimental design concepts, but also permit students to identify broader impacts of, and make connections between, basic and applied scientific research (e.g., through biomimetics).
