General Biology I Lab Manual is a set of laboratories designed to follow the course content of a 1st semester majors’ biology course that focuses on topics from cells to organisms. The labs all contain a short introduction to the material that assumes the students already have some knowledge of the background content from lecture. Most of the laboratories also have a short pre-lab assignment; these are designed to get the students to read the lab and think about the activities or the material before their lab section begins. Questions and tasks designed to have the students record their observations and to think about what they mean are embedded throughout each lab. Each lab is designed to be completed in 1 hr and 50 min period with minimal introduction.
Introduction
Open Letter
Lab 1: Surface Area – Volume Relationships
Lab 2: Science is a Process—Read, Experiment, Write
Lab 3: Biomolecules
Lab 4: Cell Membranes I
Lab 5: Diffusion and Osmosis
Lab 6: Cell Membranes
Lab 7: Microscopes
Lab 8: Cells: From Unicellular to Colonial Organisms
Lab 9: Cell Division, Mitosis
Lab 10: Animal Tissues and Organs
Lab 11: Plant Tissues and Organs
Lab 12: Scientific Primary Literature
Lab 13: Designing Our Own Experiment Testing the 5-second Rule
Lab 14: DNA amplification via Polymerase Chain Reaction
Appendix A: Scientific Figures
Appendix B: Using a Microscope
Appendix C: Data Collection and Measurement
Appendix D: Scientific Notation
Appendix E: Hints for Taking Exams