Dr. Bretton Kent

2 Credits

CLFS 725 is a two-credit, online graduate course that focuses on helping participants develop the skills necessary to plan, conduct and analyze original biological experiments. The course is designed for teachers developing new innovative laboratories for their students, or participating in research projects with other investigators. Unlike traditional laboratory courses which focus on the laboratory and field techniques for collecting data, this course emphasizes the development of effective experimental designs. Participants completing this course will be expected to design innovative research projects for their own students that will be presented to the other class members. All of the laboratory exercises in CLFS 725 can either be performed within the course website, or by using materials that are readily available locally. A fundamental component of the course is an experimental design package within the course website. This package consists of a hyperlinked, dichotomous 'design tool' that uses information provided by an investigator to identify appropriate experimental designs and analytical tools for a particular study. Further, the design tool is linked to conceptual overviews and customized spreadsheets of specific statistical tests and recommendations of the appropriate forms of tables and graphs to use with different experimental designs. The course is based on a cooperative learning model, with participants assigned to research groups that work together to investigate the principles of experimental design and apply these principles to research problems presented in the course.