What to expect in biology lab

[OKgirl]

I will be taking biology in the Fall and I'd really like to know what to expect in the labs. Just in case it matters, the course description for the biology class is:

An introduction to the concepts and methods of biology needed to understand biological issues faced by society. Upon completion of the course students will be able to apply the scientific method to problem solving and to explain natural phenomena. Students will also understand such concepts as the role of the cell in maintaining conditions essential for life. In addition, students will be able to describe the interactions between living organisms and the environment at the population, ecosystem, and biosphere levels and to identify potential impacts on society of biotechnology, world population growth, and human influences on global biogeochemical cycles.

I know that classes differ by schools, but I would love to just have an idea of what might go on. My main fear is that I will have to do animal dissections in lab. Did you have to dissect animals? If so, which ones? What other types of things did you do? Did you usually have quizzes at the beginning/end of the lab? Did you do a lot of lab practicals?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[tootoo30]

I will be taking biology in the Fall and I'd really like to know what to expect in the labs. Just in case it matters, the course description for the biology class is:

An introduction to the concepts and methods of biology needed to understand biological issues faced by society. Upon completion of the course students will be able to apply the scientific method to problem solving and to explain natural phenomena. Students will also understand such concepts as the role of the cell in maintaining conditions essential for life. In addition, students will be able to describe the interactions between living organisms and the environment at the population, ecosystem, and biosphere levels and to identify potential impacts on society of biotechnology, world population growth, and human influences on global biogeochemical cycles.

I know that classes differ by schools, but I would love to just have an idea of what might go on. My main fear is that I will have to do animal dissections in lab. Did you have to dissect animals? If so, which ones? What other types of things did you do? Did you usually have quizzes at the beginning/end of the lab? Did you do a lot of lab practicals?

Yep we dissected a rat and also had to learn the parts of the rat. We also learned about the microscope. Our final topic was the tissues of the human body. HTH

 

[mrblah]

I will be taking biology in the Fall and I'd really like to know what to expect in the labs. Just in case it matters, the course description for the biology class is:

An introduction to the concepts and methods of biology needed to understand biological issues faced by society. Upon completion of the course students will be able to apply the scientific method to problem solving and to explain natural phenomena. Students will also understand such concepts as the role of the cell in maintaining conditions essential for life. In addition, students will be able to describe the interactions between living organisms and the environment at the population, ecosystem, and biosphere levels and to identify potential impacts on society of biotechnology, world population growth, and human influences on global biogeochemical cycles.

I know that classes differ by schools, but I would love to just have an idea of what might go on. My main fear is that I will have to do animal dissections in lab. Did you have to dissect animals? If so, which ones? What other types of things did you do? Did you usually have quizzes at the beginning/end of the lab? Did you do a lot of lab practicals?

It looks like you are in intro bio. Its going to be fairly general and easy stuff. As for lab, most gen bio lab will focus on alot of microscope work, drawings, maybe basic dissection (although I doubt it) (frogs, worms, crickets, rats). Bio labs tend to be pretty easy compared to say chem lab or physics lab. You will have practicums, you will have quizzes, but the format and when you take it will depend on the professor.

Most of your major dissecting will be done in anatomy, and yes its all animals (cats, rabbits, frogs).

Nobody likes dissecting things, its messy business, but get over it, and don't let your "fear" affect your ability to work with a blade, because its all teamwork on the larger animals. If you don't contribute, or worse, you start cutting up wrong muscle groups, systems, and organs, your grades will reflect it.

If you think this will make you squeemish, you should enroll in "human prosection/human anatomy"...... Its cadaver time.


good luck.

 

[CCdarling]

It looks like you are in intro bio. Its going to be fairly general and easy stuff. As for lab, most gen bio lab will focus on alot of microscope work, drawings, maybe basic dissection (although I doubt it) (frogs, worms, crickets, rats). Bio labs tend to be pretty easy compared to say chem lab or physics lab. You will have practicums, you will have quizzes, but the format and when you take it will depend on the professor.

Most of your major dissecting will be done in anatomy, and yes its all animals (cats, rabbits, frogs).

Nobody likes dissecting things, its messy business, but get over it, and don't let your "fear" affect your ability to work with a blade, because its all teamwork on the larger animals. If you don't contribute, or worse, you start cutting up wrong muscle groups, systems, and organs, your grades will reflect it.

If you think this will make you squeemish, you should enroll in "human prosection/human anatomy"...... Its cadaver time.


good luck.

Funny thing is we didn't dissect a single thing in anatomy. We did get to view a cadaver though. In basic bio, we dissected a baby pig, a sheep heart, etc. Basic bio lab is easyyyy compared to the upper div labs. Relative to chem and physic labs, even those are not THAT bad. Well molec bio lab was sort of hard.

 

[SoccerCoach10]

I didn't do any dissections in General Bio. We learned pretty basic concepts like parts of a cell, types of organisms and classification, etc. We had a midterm lab practical and a lab final, with a few pop quizzes sprinkled in there. Based on the description that you provided, it shouldn't be too bad. Good Luck!

 

[OKgirl]

Are you usually in groups of two?

Bio labs tend to be pretty easy compared to say chem lab or physics lab.

I've already taken chemistry 1 and I thought those labs were super easy, so hopefully I'll find bio labs even easier.

If you think this will make you squeemish, you should enroll in "human prosection/human anatomy"...... Its cadaver time.

no thanks on that one. I just feel barbaric when I dissect animals--I can't even imagine how barbaric I'd feel doing it to humans. I usually happily volunteer to be the one to do the write up.

 

[UES Girl]

I will be taking biology in the Fall and I'd really like to know what to expect in the labs. Just in case it matters, the course description for the biology class is:

An introduction to the concepts and methods of biology needed to understand biological issues faced by society. Upon completion of the course students will be able to apply the scientific method to problem solving and to explain natural phenomena. Students will also understand such concepts as the role of the cell in maintaining conditions essential for life. In addition, students will be able to describe the interactions between living organisms and the environment at the population, ecosystem, and biosphere levels and to identify potential impacts on society of biotechnology, world population growth, and human influences on global biogeochemical cycles.

I know that classes differ by schools, but I would love to just have an idea of what might go on. My main fear is that I will have to do animal dissections in lab. Did you have to dissect animals? If so, which ones? What other types of things did you do? Did you usually have quizzes at the beginning/end of the lab? Did you do a lot of lab practicals?

Expect an easy fun class, with the minor unpleasant exceptions such as dissecting fetal pig. You may also do some experiments with live mice. In our university - they grew mice just for this one experiment in lab and killed them afterwards. This was extremely depressing for me to learn so I attempted to steal my mice but got caught by the teacher. Overall, it was a fun class though, good times. 👍

 

[mrblah]

availability of cadavers depend on the schools budget. I went to a relatively "rich" junior college.

I can't get use to cadavers. They are greenish, and the formaldehyde makes my eyes sting, and somewhat hard to breathe. Skin and muscle tissue feel like cook chicken.

I dunno, i hate ochem labs because they are so time consuming and I found physics lab a bore (timing experiments, and chasing after little tiny steel balls). Physio lab was a bit more exciting, but I found the data analysis boring. Bio labs tend to be more relaxed and fun mainly because you weren't collecting "data" all the time. So relatively, bio labs tend to be "fun" . 🙂

Anatomy dissection was ok. I did enjoy it, but man I hate how it makes you smell like formaldehyde/preservatives. If you had a date or were going out after lab, forget about it.

Anytime you dissect, you usually do groups of 2 or more, but i think that depends on budget also. When I did a cat/pig it was 2 people. When I did sheeps brain, and eye balls, it was just me.

 

[CCdarling]

availability of cadavers depend on the schools budget. I went to a relatively "rich" junior college.

I can't get use to cadavers. They are greenish, and the formaldehyde makes my eyes sting, and somewhat hard to breathe. Skin and muscle tissue feel like cook chicken.

I dunno, i hate ochem labs because they are so time consuming and I found physics lab a bore (timing experiments, and chasing after little tiny steel balls). Physio lab was a bit more exciting, but I found the data analysis boring. Bio labs tend to be more relaxed and fun mainly because you weren't collecting "data" all the time. So relatively, bio labs tend to be "fun" . 🙂

Anatomy dissection was ok. I did enjoy it, but man I hate how it makes you smell like formaldehyde/preservatives. If you had a date or were going out after lab, forget about it.

Anytime you dissect, you usually do groups of 2 or more, but i think that depends on budget also. When I did a cat/pig it was 2 people. When I did sheeps brain, and eye balls, it was just me.

Ugh yes the formaldehyde is what really gets to you. The skin on our cadaver looked like yellow leather. Good thing his face was covered 🙄.

In our school, our neuro labs require you to inject some chemicals into a mouse to give it Parkinsons. You have to drill a hole in its skull and then inject the chemicals into its brain. The mice are then stitched up and kept alive for a week to see the effects. Good thing I never took that lab 👎.

 

[tharper14]

Hmmm, if I remember correctly we dissected a fetal pig, an earthworm, and a sheep heart, that's it. In other classes I had to dissect cane toads, rats, fish, and plenty of others I can't remember. Whenever my partner was more enthusiastic about doing the cutting, I would let them cut away... I would generally just observe during dissections... I get a little squimmish too 😛

 

[Sparda29]

I found General Biology lab extremely boring, which is why I did poorly in it. Anytime I have to work with microscopes, my grades on the exam corresponding to that suck.

Dissecting the pig, cat, and organs was fun though. Immunology lab was pretty fun when we were testing the serums, running gels, ELISA tests, etc.

Microbiology lab, surprisingly we didn't do much microscope work, a lot of petri dish stuff. This class got me sick for 3 weeks because I decided to sniff a petri dish that was full of Streptococcus.

 

[OKgirl]

Dissecting the pig, cat, and organs was fun though.

Oh please not another cat dissection! I can't tell you how many fetal pigs, hearts, and sharks I've had to dissect. I doubt the cat will be much better the THIRD time I have to do it.

 

[jspwinter]

What other classes did you do dissections?

 

[OKgirl]

What other classes did you do dissections?

Mine were all in high school. We did them in freshman bio, AP bio, human A&p, and zoology.

 

[Sparda29]

The cat is one of the most anatomically similar and cheap to obtain animals, so you're going to be seeing them in Human Anatomy. I hate working on the preserved ones that have been in the freezer for days also, the skin gets so damn thick and impossible to cut easily, and their muscles get real tight so it take a lot of effort from 2 people to keep the cat in anatomical position while performing the biopsy.

I attempted a brain biopsy, but my scalpel couldn't break through the skull. Our anatomy teacher was an M.D. and said she would bring in power tools but I got hit by the flu that week so I missed it.

 

[OleMiss2012]

This class got me sick for 3 weeks because I decided to sniff a petri dish that was full of Streptococcus.

Why did you decide to do that? Are you familiar with the phrase "Here's your sign"? lol.

See link. (You'll have to cut and paste it)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ832_PL3mU

 

[futurerxguy]

For me, it was microscopes, general dissection and organ identification, and a research paper at the end of the course. It's a piece of cake.... you should get an A easy, and if not a B. .... there isn't much too it.

 

[Sparda29]

Why did you decide to do that? Are you familiar with the phrase "Here's your sign"? lol.

See link. (You'll have to cut and paste it)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ832_PL3mU

The professor asked us to smell the difference between the antibiotic laced petri dishes and the non-antibiotic laced petri dishes. Everyone else on my table was too scared so I decided to do it.

Afterwards I found out that he meant to smell it with the covers still on the dishes. 👍