Laboratory 1                                                                                                    Zoology 1121

                                  Introduction / Scentific Method

A. Introduction to Intro. Zoo. Laboratory

    1.     Introduction of TA,  office number and hours, phone and email; course section.
    2.     Hand out student information cards for students to fill out, then collect cards.
    3.     Hand out safety sheets and discuss contents (i.e. no open toed shoes); discuss
            separate contact lens sheet; show eye wash station and fine aid kits; explain clean up
            and broken slide procedures. Introduce 911 procedures and 325-Walk (for student
            escort).
    4.     Discuss contents of syllabus in detail.
    5.     Student introductions: students introduce themselves and share a little information
            about themselves with the class.
    6.     Discuss the Objectives of the Course.
    7.     Discuss the Objectives for the First Lab (items 1-6; p. 1)

B. Scientific Method

    1.     Define and discuss Science and Scientific Method. Why are we studying the scientific
            method? This discussion should give logic behind the procedures we will follow in all
            experiments we do throughout the semester. Why is understanding the scientific
            method important in today's society?
    2.     Discuss the steps of the Scientific Method. Students follow along in their books
            (pp. 1-4).
    3.     Reinforce scientific method using the Predatory Encounter Experiment (pp. 2-4).
            Students identify components of the scientific method (i.e. hypothesis, variables,
            etc.). Students graph results from this experiment in table 1-1 page 5. Discuss
            conclusions; Students design other experiments to test the same hypothesis.

C. Designing an Experiment--- Vital Lung Capacity Experiment (P. 7)

    1.     Introduce the experiment. Students possible observations to test.
            Students formulate several hypotheses; select one to test. Students define
            variables and record them in their books (p. 7). .
    2.     Students calculate Theoretical Vital Capacity.
    3.     Discuss the application of possible statistical tests appropriate for the hypothesis
            being tested. (i.e. t-test if comparing two group means or chi-square if analyzing
            deviation from expected).
    4.     Students display results graphically. Discuss the results of the statistical tests (i.e.
            significance and what significance really means) . What do these data suggest with
            respect to the hypothesis being tested? Discuss how statistics assisted in this
            conclusion.
    7.     Students answer questions on page 8.
 
 

D. Biological Classification

    1.     Why we classify animals. Discuss the Taxonomic Hierarchy.
    2.     Discuss the Phylogenetic Tree and compare to Taxonomy. Use figure 1-4 to discuss
            relationships among groups of organisms on the phylogenetic tree (e.g. students
            should know the significance of the relationships between the branches of the tree).
    3.     Discuss the dichotomous key; use the example key (pp. 10-1 1).
 

 Important Terms:
Scientific method
observation
question
hypothesis
null hypothesis
experiment
dependent vs. independent variable
controlled variables
levels of treatment
replication
control treatment
conclusions
communication
statistical analysis
Taxonomy
phylogeny
Kingdom Phylum
Class, Order
Family
Genus
Species
phylogenetic tree