ATTENDANCE: You must attend your laboratory section to perform and understand the activities.
If you miss a laboratory you lose 5 points possible for that exercise. More than three laboratory
absences will result in an "F" in the course.

HOMEWORK AND EXAMS: You will be assigned laboratory report assignments, homework,
article summaries or given quizzes the laboratory periods. A midterm practical and final exam
will be given at the designated times. The point value for these activities are:

Midterm Practical Exam                                                  20 pts
Final Exam                                                                        40 pts
Laboratory Quizzes (5@ 5 pt ea./drop lowest)                20 pts
In-Class Assessment (5@ 5 pt ea./drop lowest)             20 pts
Article Summaries (5@ 10 pt ea./drop lowest)               40 pt
Laboratory Reports (4@ 20 pt ea./drop lowest)             60 pts
Out of Class Homework (5@ 10 pt ea./drop lowest)       40 pts
Presentations (2@ 10 pt ea)                                             20 pts
Laboratory Notebook                                                       20 pts
Field Trip Write-up                                                           20 pts

Total Laboratory Points:                                                300 pts

WRITING A JOURNAL: Many of the laboratory exercises will involve two parts,
(1)long term data collection and (2) short term observation for identification of structure
and function. During the course of the laboratory you will be asked to write down your
observations in a journal. Document all observations in an organized manner.

WRITING THE LABORATORY REPORT: The report should be double spaced using
a font no smaller than 12 point. Write on one side of the paper only.  Each report is due
one week after the completion of the experiment; you will be given dates. Except for excused
absences these laboratories cannot be  made up and an unexcused absences means a zero
on the report. For any class report, always make a copy and submit the original. Each report
will have a value of 20 points. Listed below are the sections that are expected in each laboratory report.
Include the following sections in your laboratory report.

     Abstract:  An abstract differs from the objectives in that it summarizes all the
                       results.  The purpose of the abstract is to give a synopsis of what the
                       paper is about.

     Introduction: The introduction section should be a brief description of the
                             exercises to be performed. Students may include references in the
                             introduction section.
     Discussion and Summary: This section should be devoted to the interpretation of
     data collected. Use the actual numbers reported in the “results” to document
     your conclusions.
 

        Material and Methods: This section describes the design of the experiments. It
        should contain both a flowchart and the procedures used to conduct the experiment.

       Results: This section should contain the raw data. Any attempts to interpret the
       data should be put in the discussion section of the report.  The data must be presented
       in an organized manner using tables, charts, or graphical representation. The data must
       be “real” not a fabrication of the data. The student is reminded to avoid explanation of
      “what they think” or “expected to see” in this section.
 

     Literature Cited: These references should appear as follows in the text:

           1. Allan, T., and A. Warren.  1993. Deserts. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

           2. Laemmli, U.K. 1970. Cleavage of structural proteins during the assembly
               of the head of bacteriophage T4. Nature 227:680-685.

Formulating and Testing a Hypothesis: A hypothesis is a statement using observational data or research from the literature to explain some phenomena. When you formulate a hypothesis, you are making an educated guess.  A hypothesis leads to a prediction, and two criteria must be established. First, the hypothesis must be able to be tested true or false.  Secondly, we must therefore be able to discriminate between two possibilities. A null hypothesis states the alternative  possibility that no effect occurs. It states that no causal relationship exists. Some suggestions to help you formulate clear hypotheses that can be tested are:

1) Use adequate replication.
2) Change only one variable at a time  (distinguish between dependent and independent
    variables)
3) Use the appropriate statistical techniques to analyze your data.

The Scientific Method is a systematic way of describing and revealing the universe based on observing, comparing, reasoning, predicting, testing, and interpreting.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Flowchart for Scientific Method

                                                          Observations
                                           (some unexplained  phenomenon)

  Formulate a Question (about the unexplained)  ----------------   Observation
                                                                                                 (previous experiments)
  Revisit Hypothesis

  Experiment(s)    -----------------------------------------          Compare (expected
                                                                                               with observed)
 Conclusion  (support or deny hypothesis)