Using the Bios 211 Course Web Site

***If you have difficulty navigating this web site or have trouble obtaining the information that you need, please send an inquiry or arrange to meet with an instructor.*** Each major section can be reached from the home page or from the top navigation bar.

Why use an electronic manual?

• We are well aware that many students would prefer to have a printed "lab manual." There are several reasons not to do it that way.
• When we use a traditional "laboratory manual" the work often degenerates into a "cookbook" step-by-step exercise
• You learn more when you have to seek out the information that you need instead of being led by the nose
• We save a lot of paper
• We can update the site any time
• Other instructors at Rice or anywhere in the world can use these materials, and in fact they do use them

At least for this course all of the information that you need is on a single web site. In the real world you would have to do a literature search and use dozens or even hundreds of sources to obtain similar information.

Navigating the course web site

The top menu bar takes you to any of the major sections described on the home (index) page. For example, choosing "Start" brings up the course description page and the navigation bar to the left below.

The left navigation bar takes you to the different divisions within a major section. When a division consists of multiple pages, use the Next and Back buttons to cover a topic in the intended order. Relevant links are listed above the titles of some pages, and links are placed in text for your convenience. For example, choosing "Lab guides" from the top menu brings up the "Overview of lab studies" page and the Lab studies navigation bar). Selecting the "Flagella regeneration" link from the left navigation bar brings up "An Experiment on Flagellar Regeneration" with a list of related links above the title. Selecting "Amputation of flagella" from this list brings up the page with title shown below.

Printing the presentations and web pages

When you print web pages take advantage of the preview option. You may want to adjust the scale (%) to make the text come out properly, or to reduce the number of pages and therefore, the cost. If you print a slide presentation, it is strongly recommended that you print from the pdf file, not the web page version. It will be in grayscale, but all of the notes will be included on each page. If you print from the web presentation (in color) you may lose some of the notes, and you will probably have to print one page at a time.

Weekly schedules

Shedules and assignments are posted on Owlspace.

Laboratory guides

In the guides each laboratory study is presented in a sequence of pages. Each guide provides background information that you will need to prepare for and complete the laboratory work, to analyze the results, and to write up the project. Each schedule page describes specific goals for your reading. Stay focused on your specific objectives. Readings include more than the minimum necessary information.

Laboratory methods

Here is where you will find details on methodology that you will apply to individual projects. General information can be found here, such as the rationale behind an assay or the principles of differential centrifugation. The section also describes project-specific methods such as fractionation of liver tissue to obtain isolated mitochondria or how to prepare a protein sample for SDS-PAGE. When you are chasing down all of the resources that are related to a particular lab study, be selective. The recommended reading may include more information than you will actually need.

Writing/analytical resources

These resources include guidelines for writing research papers and keeping a laboratory notebook. This section will also help you with quantitative data analysis and help you to work with dimensions and units, graphing, and statistical methods. Some of these materials, especially the pdf resources, were written for students in any department in natural sciences and engineering. They present fundamental information that applies universally, not just to research in biological sciences. Resources in pdf format are identified. The links to such files may take you out of the Bios 211 web site.

Expectations and assessment

We tend to become so focused on details of assignments that we often forget that the objective of course work is to retain and be able to use information and experience in the future. The assessment section describes the purpose, expectations, and grading criteria for each type of assignment and long term learning objectives for the course. It also describes the overall goals of our natural sciences laboratory program.

You should peruse the course/program objectives right away, so that instructor and student work toward the same purpose. As each type of assignment comes up for the first time have a look at the corresponding assessment page. Identify the purpose of the assignment and the basis on which your performance will be assessed. As you tackle the work try to think of what specific program objectives are addressed. For example, the early pre-lab assignments are largely quantitative. Look at the objectives under "Basic Laboratory Skills" that are related to quantitative work and keep them in mind as you complete the assignment.

Other resources

Bios 211 uses Owlspace in addition to the course web site. You may also wish to use a textbook or library resources to clarify your understanding of some of the background information presented in the studies. You are encouraged to seek help from the instructor, of course.