Investigating Biology - Couverture souple

Judith Giles Morgan received her M.A. degree from the University of Texas, Austin. She teaches in the coastal biology program and the introductory biology program at Emory University. She has revised the general biology laboratory curriculum for majors to incorporate an investigative approach and has developed a TA training program for multi-section investigative laboratories. She has long emphasized the importance of writing and computer simulations in the lab.

M. Eloise Brown Carter earned her Ph.D. from Emory University and is currently Associate Professor of Biology at Oxford College of Emory University. With expertise in plant ecology, she has incorporated independent and team research into lecture and laboratory courses in introductory and advanced biology. Dr. Carter also teaches in the Oxford Institute for Environmental Education, a summer program of Oxford College for precollege teachers.

With its distinctive investigative approach to learning, this effective laboratory manual encourages students to become detectives of science. While teaching the basic materials and procedures important for all biology majors to learn, the authors also invite students to pose hypotheses, make predictions, conduct open-ended experiments, collect data, and then apply the results to new problems. The result of this “process of science” approach is that students learn to think creatively, just as scientists do. Laboratory exercises are divided into 3 categories—directed investigations, thematic investigations, and open-ended investigations.