BIOL 212 Scientific Methods in Biology Units: 3.00
A hands on laboratory course that establishes the fundamentals of scientific investigation and applies them to selected biological questions. Students will learn to develop hypotheses, design and execute experiments, and to analyze and present results. There will be four modules structured as: Cell, Organism, Population, and Ecosystem.
NOTE Blended learning, online material and hands on activities in the lab.
NOTE QUBS Field Trip: Estimated cost $70.
NOTE Blended learning, online material and hands on activities in the lab.
NOTE QUBS Field Trip: Estimated cost $70.
Learning Hours: 119 (9 Lecture, 66 Laboratory, 12 Online Activity, 8 Off-Campus Activity, 24 Private Study)
Offering Faculty: Faculty of Arts and Science
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Apply the scientific method: develop specific hypotheses with testable predictions, determine appropriate treatments and controls that provide a fair test of the predictions, identify potential sources of methodological errors, design and execute an unbiased sampling protocol, test predictions by summarizing and visualizing data in a statistical context, evaluate the hypothesis based on your results, and identify the scope of inference.
- Undertake writing all phases of a scientific article including an introduction that integrates primary literature with experimental questions, methods, results, and discussion.
- Show proficiency in the following skills: proper lab notebook, proper pipetting technique and working with volumes, general numeracy skills, accurate use of a balance, aseptic technique, and cell culture.
- Identify how biological systems respond to their environment at the hierarchical levels of cells, organisms, populations, and ecosystems.
- Identify and distinguish the mechanisms that allow biological systems to respond over short versus long time periods (cellular, physiological, demographic, evolution, community composition).