Goal 2.2 is demonstrating that students are able to analyze data quantitatively and develop testable models of that data. The lab portions of biology classes here at Longwood University strive to teach students to collect data during an experiment, run statistical analysis on that data, and properly display the data in graph or table form.
The first artifact I put on this page was a lab report from Biology 324 which is Genetics. The purpose of that lab was to measure gene expression of Rb, p21, and p53 in cancer cells treated with the natural compound, resveratrol, and compare it to media melanoma cells. Looking at this report, I can tell that this probably one of the first major data analysis reports that I have completed in my student career. My bar graphs are not neat at all and the figure legends could have been more detailed.
My second artifact was from a more recent class, Modern genetics, where the whole class was focused around collecting data from computer programs and statistical analysis. I felt prepared taking this class because a couple of years had passed since taking genetics and I had practice using different methods of statistical analysis through taking statistics class and learning how successful plug in formulas on Microsoft Excel to transform the data into graphs. The lab report was about subtyping a Salmonella isolate that was collected and sequenced in Virginia. The methods included gene annotation and assembly methods all done on the computer. Tables, figures, graphs were created to represent the data given from running statistical analysis on the data.
I definitely see growth in my writing style and the way I display data in my lab reports between the two artifacts. I feel more comfortable creating graphs and writing figure legends for them. I think this goal is the most important one for students to master because the majority of future jobs will be focused around knowing how to properly organize and interpret data.