STUDENT-LED LABS

Students will be in charge of almost half of the labs in the course (9 of 20). This means that students, in groups of four or five, will either go collect or grow the organisms to be investigated, and will look at the material in advance so that they can be prepared to answer questions from other students. They will also be in charge of the explanatory lecture at the beginning of the lab. The material presented in student-led labs will be included in lab exams.

Each student will have to this only ONCE in the entire course, some in the first and some in the second term.  Please choose the lab you would like to lead by Monday, September 12^th. Unfortunately, some labs require more work than others (this can’t be helped, it’s in the nature of the material that will be investigated). In order to keep things more-or-less fair, I won’t tell you which are the more involved labs. The following is a list of the student-led labs, including dates and some hints about what you might expect; more detailed instructions will be given to the students in charge of each lab later on. IMPORTANT: the only way to change the lab you’ll lead once it’s been assigned is to exchange your spot with someone else from a later lab.  If you miss your scheduled lab, we WILL NOT be able to put you in another one, please plan ahead. 

1. Oct 3: Lab 4: Conosa. (Students in charge of roughly 2/3 of the lab). Students will collect and/or grow slime moulds. Appropriate for people interested in lab work and developmental biology, and for people who like to take long, long walks in the forest.

2. Oct 17: Lab 5: Opisthokonts. (Students in charge of roughly 2/3 of the lab). Students will try to get chytrids to grow on pollen grains and will get sponges. Appropriate for people who have taken invertebrate zoology and know about sponges (or want to learn about them!).

3. Oct 24: Lab 6: Oxymonads and Parabasalians. (Students in charge of the whole lab). Students will go look for termites and will dissect them in the lab. Appropriate for people who like to hack wood and are not grossed out by insects.

4. Oct 31: Lab 7: Kinetoplastids. (Students in charge of roughly 1/3 of the lab). Students will look for parasitic flies in sheep. This involves a trip to UBC farm (South Campus). Appropriate for people interested in medicine, veterinary science and for people who don’t mind staring at the microscope for long hours looking for small things.

5. Feb. 6: Lab 14: Live Gregarines (Students in charge of the whole lab). Students will investigate beetle grubs and earthworms for gregarine parasites.

6. Mar. 6: Lab 17: Karyorelictid ciliates (Students will be in charge of ca. 1/3 of the lab). Involves a trip to Centennial Beach at low tide to collect sand, and an extraction experiment.

7. Mar. 13: Lab 18: Oligohymenophoran ciliates (Students will be in charge of ca. 1/3 of the lab). Appropriate for people with easy access to a fresh water pond (repeated visits). Involves trying to get suctorians to grow on a slide.

8. Mar. 20: Lab 19: Testaceafilosians (Students will be in charge of ca. half of the lab). Appropriate for people interested in mosses and in bogs, and for people with easy access to places like Burns Bog in Delta.

9. Mar. 27: Lab 20: Foraminiferans (Students will be in charge of ¾ of the lab.) Involves a boat trip, probably in the rain (it’s going to be March!) and long hours sieving mud. Appropriate for aspiring oceanographers, geologists and paleontologists, and for people who don’t mind getting really wet and/or really dirty.

One student in each group will be asked to evaluate the work of the other members of his/her group; this assessment will be taken into consideration later on. Nevertheless, student-led labs will not be graded in the conventional sense. Instead, at the very end of the course (i.e. at the end of the second term) and if we were impressed by the work of each student, we might lift his/her final grade by up to 7 percentage points.

We understand that this is risky business, things don’t always work out as planned. Don’t worry too much if things don’t grow/die too soon/hide too well or if some other catastrophe occurs, the objective of this is to get you really involved with the material. Have fun! This is one activity that you are really supposed to enjoy.