To assist you in using your time in the laboratory efficiently and productively, we are requiring that you prepare prelabs. These are outlines of the experimental procedure that you plan to follow for a given experiment. They may take several forms. You will be given explicit directions on the type of prelab that we will require. Once scientists have discovered something new about nature, they have a responsibility to communicate it to other scientists.
All types follow a similar format, which is unique to the scientific community.
To introduce you to scientific presentations, we will require you to write two laboratory reports in the form of research articles, one for the experiment on lectin specificity and one for your experiments on Beta-galactosidase. You will be encouraged to take your papers to the writing laboratory for a consultation before you submit them for this class. You will be given detailed instructions about these exercises. Miscellaneous Reports . Additionally, you will be required to submit a data sheet for the DNA experiment, a problem set on scientific unit analysis designed to familiarize you with some basic calculations required in the laboratory, a library assignment to assure that you are comfortable with the library research procedures before you are required to use them for your written and oral presentations, and some other minor assignments.