A Plan for Laboratory Education Purpose Instructors of introductory biology for non-majors completely revised the laboratory portion of the first semester of the course to focus on the scientific investigative process. The new format aims to give students a better sense of the process of scientific investigation and, through extensive writing and oral presentations, to improve their communication skills. The project directors wished to accomplish these goals without negatively affecting student performance in the lecture course, which the traditional laboratories help to support. A writer's guide and writing exercises, produced in collaboration with members of the English Department.
Students begin the semester with the computer simulation.
Teams of three or four students experimentally determine the best values for each of five culturing variables. The teams then test their conclusions by simulating five years of commercial operation under their predicted optimum conditions. Students using the same unknown fish compete against one another for the most profitable results. Finally, each student writes a FISH FARM report. The emphasis in grading these reports is on correct presentation and interpretation of the results, not on profit.