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Week Two – Flagellar Regeneration in Chlamydomonas

You always pass failure on the way to success.
Mickey Rooney (1920 - )

Monday Presentation

The talk this week will introduce Calibrated Peer Review (CPR), the system that we will use to help you learn to write results sections of research papers. This week you will submit a results section for the first laboratory study, in addition to your materials and methods section. Through CPR you will learn to evaluate a results section, score three papers submitted by your peers, and then score your own paper. Background reading for the CPR work will be made available some time today. Two copies of today's CPR talks with notes are posted on Owlspace among the BIOS 211 resources. One copy of each talk is a PowerPoint file and the other is a pdf. One talk describes how to use CPR while the other explains some of the criteria used to evaluate research papers.

Additional resources that you will find to be useful when analyzing your data from this week, include the following.

  • Reference materials on dimensions, units, graphing, error representation, etc.
  • On line tutorial on "Student's" t test

On your own – before your laboratory session

Pre-laboratory orientation

  • We will assign individuals to teams before getting started
  • An instructor will present suggestions for observing cultures and for scoring samples
  • We will have time to field any questions that you might have

Laboratory work this week

We will conduct the study on the regulation of microtubule assembly in the protist Chlamydomonas. The instructor will amputate flagella and prepare the cultures. You will conduct the experiment in teams of four or five individuals, working with your own cultures.

Suggestions

Your number one objective last week was to learn to quickly find fixed/stained Chlamydomonas on a microscope slide, bring the subjects to 400x magnification, and identify/measure flagella. We will give you a sample on which to practice before we start the actual experiment, in case you need to refresh your memory. If you think that you are unprepared to conduct the experiment despite having a few minutes to set up the microscope and get back into practice, then please come in before your lab day to practice on your own. The laboratory will be open during the day and practice microscopes and cultures will be identified. We only ask that you sign in when you come to the laboratory on your own.

Microscope slides and cover slips are shockingly expensive. Invariably, someone in the group slimes up unused glass with Vaseline and/or leaves slides and coverslips strewn over a sinktop or bench. We will be watching for careless behavior, including wasting materials and unsafe disposal of sharp glass.

Follow-up work

  • [recommended] Work through the statistics tutorial on "Student's" t test before completing your results section
  • Having completed the first laboratory study, it is time to write up the materials and methods and the results sections for the first research paper
  • Next Tuesday the background reading for the first CPR assignment will become available
  • Download the annotated writing examples (pdf) for access to examples of writing sections of a research paper
  • Peruse the section on writing research papers (writing/analytical resources), especially the parts on organization of a research paper and materials/methods; you should refer to this resource fairly often
  • Prelab #2 – "Laboratory Math" is to be completed and submitted no later than midnight before your lab day

 
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Created by David R. Caprette (caprette@rice.edu), Rice University17 Aug 95
Updated 12 Sep 09