A Mixed Course Based Research Approach to Human Physiology (Whitmer)

These labs were designed to provide students with hands-on access to modern techniques in human physiological analyses using the course-based research pedagogical approach. In this course, students will learn how to perform literature searches; generate research questions and hypotheses; design experiments; collect, analyze, visualize and interpret data; and present scientific findings to others. This curriculum offers a high-impact human physiology experience that fosters the critical thinking skills required to be a successful citizen in a modern world filled with misinformation.

With rising education expenses it is ever more critical for university faculty to strive to reduce costs for our students. This project was developed with a love for learning and an understanding of our students’ current and future needs. This text has evolved through many iterations, and several Biology 256L teaching staff have contributed to the current edition. Thank you to everyone who has provided figures, comments, and feedback on this work. Thank you to Ryan Arndorfer, Cameron Miller, Mary Madsen, Michael McCloskey, and Aron Nakama for their assistance in developing and editing these physiology activities. Thank you to Iowa State University staff involved in providing the Miller Open Education mini-grant that supported this work, with particular gratitude to Abbey Elder, Open Access & Scholarly Communication Librarian. A special thank you to Dr. Barbara Krumhardt for developing previous versions of the vital signs and blood labs used in this text. Many of the experiments in this text use iWorx human physiology hardware and software; thank you to iWorx for providing the foundational work for these experiments. Methods provided by iWorx for hardware and LabScribe software are copyright iWorx © 2020 iWorx All Rights Reserved.

The Biology 256 Fundamentals of Human Physiology Laboratory course complements the Biology 256 lecture course and was designed to provide students with hands-on access to modern techniques in human physiological analyses using a mixed coursebased research pedagogical approach. This mixed approach focuses on practicing the foundational skills required for performing research before taking on real human physiology research questions. During the first half of this course, students learn how to perform literature searches; generate research questions and hypotheses; design experiments; collect, analyze, visualize and interpret data; and present scientific findings to others. Students gain scientific process skills by conducting experiments and/or clinical investigations each week. At midterm the course shifts from acquiring skills to applying skills. The Course Undergraduate Research Experiences (CURE) model is employed when students begin to write a series of short research proposals. These proposals must be original research ideas created by the students, which do not appear to have obvious conclusions in the research literature. The graduate teaching assistant helps the students to select one proposal for oral presentation to the class. The proposal is peer-reviewed in preparation for conducting the original experiment. During the last weeks of class, experiments are conducted, data is collected and analyzed, and findings from the student research projects are presented to the class. The Biol 256L curriculum offers a high-impact human physiology experience that fosters the critical thinking skills required to be a successful citizen in a modern world filled with misinformation. This goal is achieved by:

• Creating a learning environment that relies on collaborative work and emphasizes communication among staff and peers.
• Asking students to use foundational skills to discriminate information in research communications and the media.
• Providing opportunity for course-based undergraduate research (CURE) or participation in research projects that do not have well-established results in the scientific literature.