Funding from NSF has promoted further development of student-generated labs.
Students are responsible for running every aspect of the scientific process.
They prepare the lab manual and do the lab preparation, determine the methods used, and with appropriate faculty guidance, are responsible for the smooth operation of the lab. Students have access to all of the science equipment, labs done in previous years and even have a modest research budget. Upon completion of the five group projects in each class section, each group then reports to the class the results of each lab. Student-generated topics are many and varied. They include studying lead concentrations along environmental gradients, Jupiter's moons and Kepler's laws, hydroponics, the effects of the Oxford sewage treatment plant on organisms in Four-Mile creek, the effects of caffeine on heart rate and respiration, studying plant diversity and how it relates to soil pH, studying the physical characteristics of Western Pond studying the sediment budget for Western pond, and a faunal analysis of the microhabitats within the pond, among many others.