Students will be able to evaluate, interpret, and apply experimental design and draw valid
conclusions from experiments:
In almost every one of my biology classes at Longwood, I’ve completed a semester-long project. I had to first come to findings in my BIOL 12O: Integrative Biology, BIOL 250: Intro to Genetics and Cell Biology, and BIOL 324: Genetic courses during the first two years of my biology degree. I was allowed to do more outdoor and lab work in these courses.
In our first semester of integrative biology, we put more emphasis on the idea of drawing inferences from our experiment based on data gathered from bacteria collected by swabbing water from campus fountains into an agar dish and tallying the number of bacterial colonies growing into it. This first endeavor sparked a flood of knowledge about what it took to draw a conclusion from the data gathered. We can tell which agar got the most bacteria by numbering the colonies on each plate and comparing the results to the other plates. With this information, we learned how to present our conclusion to the class through a slide presentation here
My intro to genetics served as a basic foundation for genetic BIOL 324 which went into more depth about how to use PCR and draw conclusions furthermore learned how to present the information in a research showcase here. Overall, the first few classes I took during the first two years of my biology degree helped me lay the groundwork for learning how to draw conclusions from the personal search projects I worked on, but more importantly, they taught me what to look for when collecting data and drawing conclusions.
Additionally, BIOL 473 Biomechanics taught me how to better understand scientific articles and understand the conclusion of data gathered throughout the experiment. Having the opportunity to make a presentation and present for an hour and 15 minutes which at first was something that was difficult for me to entertain a class for that long period of time, but mostly because I have always learned to do a presentation in under 15 minutes. Throughout this class, we learned to analyze data, but mostly break down the information presented and portray it to the class.