How scientists study biology

Course Description

Goal: The goal for this course is to allow students to experience the hands-on aspects of biology research and appreciate the diverse nature of research in biology.

Overview: During this one-week course, students will complete a blend of classroom and hands-on research experiences in the field of biology. The focus will be on giving students the experience of conducting a biology research experiment from beginning to end. The course will be run by researchers from the Bruin lab (www.bruinlab.com) at Carleton University.

Students will conduct biomedical research experiments in the Bruin lab. Students will be given a biomedical research question relating to diabetes and cell biology, and will collaborate in small groups to conduct in-lab hands-on experiments. Students will have the opportunity to conduct microscopy, immunohistochemistry, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and bacterial swabbing. The in-lab aspect to this course will start on day 2 when students will begin learning the necessary skills to conduct experiments. On days 3 and 4 students will spend the majority of their day conducting the different techniques listed above. To supplement the laboratory work, students will have workshops to discuss the necessary background information to understand their hands-on experiments and the experiment outcomes. The week will end with an informal discussion on the highlights and struggles of conducting biology research.

Additionally, researchers from multiple different fields in biology will be brought in as guest speakers to discuss their research throughout the week. This will allow students to talk to a variety of different scientists and learn about the many fields of biology research.

Learning outcomes: By participating in this course, students will be able to:
1. Understand the diverse nature of biology research being conducted at Carleton University
2. Understand the planning and implementation of a biology research question
3. With guidance, conduct biomedical research experiments including microscopy, immunohistochemistry and polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
4. Complete aspects of biology research such as pipetting and visualizing data