Description

The two semester "LIFE" courses at Colorado State University enroll nearly 3,000 students each year in a traditional Introductory Biology sequence accompanied by a laboratory. The Life Lab Revisions team has piloted a Canvas-based approach to building scientific competencies in labs, including writing and reading to learn prompts and multiple opportunities to read and analyze scientific papers, develop hypotheses and predictions, design experiments that address research questions, generate data sheets for data collection, enhance quantitative skills through data analysis, generate figures/tables of their results, interpret their results, and gain practice communicating their findings both in writing and orally. We have developed a Canvas template for delivering flexible lab content that allows us to take advantage of embedded rubrics and Canvas analytics to nimbly evaluate student learning outcomes, revise and refine activities, and respond to emergent societally relevant issues, such as COVID-19.

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