Meeting Abstract
We describe a collaboration between Muhlenberg Introductory Biology professors and the science librarian on a student-driven, inquiry-based set of activities meant to illuminate the scientific process from the initial scientific questions through to oral dissemination of results. Involving students in hands-on, self-driven investigations will allow them to see the challenges of quantitative scientific investigations, and the role of scientific creativity in experimental design and interpretation. This project allows a large group of students to engage in the type of research project often only available to students working one-on-one with instructors or in research labs. This particular activity requires skeletons of multiple species of small mammals, but there are many ways to alter the project to suit available resources. Students are introduced to scholarly communication in the biological sciences at the beginning of the project, and use this knowledge to identify credible information on the ecology of assigned species of small mammals. The information they find is used to form hypotheses and predictions, which they then test, analyze and present. The project allows students to participate in the scientific process early in their careers, starting with research and hypothesis forming, and ending with presenting their results to their peers. The project helps students to view science as more than merely an accumulation of facts and empowers them to participate in later, more sustained, scientific investigations.
