INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS
BIOLOGY LAB CLEARINGHOUSE

Contributions of methods, exercises, or investigations to this site are welcome.  Please submit to the Steering Committee chairperson, Dr. R. Hodson.  Manuscripts should be prepared with either MSWord (Office 97 or earlier; PC platform) or a plain text editor.  They may be sent as an attachment in an e-mail message.  If an author is submitting a collection, e.g. from an in-house lab manual,  it should be separated into individual items.  This will make it easier for programmers to set up the database, for potential users to locate material of interest, and for authors to make revisions.

The BLC is requesting that documents be tailored to fit one of three categories:  Method, Exercise, Investigation.
Instructions for each category follow.
Although there are components suggested for each category, their arrangement is at the discretion of the author.
[Note:  all of the documents in the Clearinghouse do not conform to these instructions.  These documents will be revised.]

(1)  Method
Documents in this category contain instructions for carrying out a protocol but not for making specific observations or conducting experiments.
Click here for a sample document.
The major components are:

(2)  Exercise
Documents in this category are modeled after traditional laboratory work in which students follow a procedure and answer specific questions from observations they are instructed to make.
Click here for a sample document. (sample document not available at this time) (3)  Investigation
Documents in this category are designed for student-centered learning.  Their main feature is support for open-ended projects that begin with posing a scientific question and forming an hypothesis. The projects may be intended to run 1 laboratory period or longer.  Instructions for methods needed in the investigation should be included.

Two sample documents are offered as suggestions for style.  Document 1, an investigation into the path of water movement in plant stems, has only a compound microscope for precision equipment.  Document 2, an investigation into factors affecting transpiration in plant shoots, employs electronic sensors for quantitative data acquisition.

The major components are:

Revised 12.11.00