ABLE 2005 conference program

Wednesday June 22nd Workshops

This Is Your Blackworm, This Is Your Blackworm on Drugs – Any Questions?
Kelly Bohrer, Biology Department, University of Dayton, OH
Blackworms (Lumbriculus variegatus) are excellent organisms for studying the circulatory system and the effects of drugs on this system for three main reasons: their skin is transparent making it easy to observe pulsation rates, drugs quickly diffuse through the skin of blackworms thus providing immediate effects, blackworms are easy to maintain in a laboratory. In blackworms, the dorsal blood vessel pumps oxygenated blood from the posterior to the anterior end by muscular contractions in each segment. At any time, several pulsation waves travel the length of the worm at a constant rate. Much like in humans, the pulsation rate is regulated by the nervous and endocrine systems. Since many drugs affect these systems (e.g. nicotine mimicking natural neurotransmitters), they can affect the rate of pulsation in bloodworms. In this investigative lab, students observe blackworm pulsation rate in normal conditions and observe how pulsation rate is affected by drugs.

This lab stresses scientific process skills as well as the blackworm circulatory system. Part I is designed to teach blackworm handling and viewing procedures and to guide the student through initial observations of the blackworm’s behavior and circulatory system. Part II is a student-led investigation in which the students decide what drug to test the effects of and then design and run their own experiments. The students write up their investigations as an informal report and orally present their design, results, and conclusion at a later date.

This lab is currently an introductory, non-major’s two hour lab, but it can be expanded in many ways for three hour and more advanced labs. During this workshop, participants will perform the investigation, learn blackworm handling and preparatory procedures, experience some of the expansions (including making the microscope viewing plates), and discuss other possibilities for using blackworms in their labs (toxicology, environmental effects, Q10, etc.).

Adaptations of Aquatic Insects to Habitat and Food Resources in Streams
Amy Braccia and J. Reese Voshell, Jr. Department of Entomology Virginia Tech
This is an all day workshop.
A field trip to a shallow stream is ideal for using inquiry to teach how animals have special adaptations for being successful in particular environments. This exercise can be done entirely in the field, or it can include follow up studies in the lab if stereomicroscopes are available. In the field, students are first directed to several small-scale habitats (microhabitats). Examples of typical microhabitats are: surfaces of large, stable stones in fast current; accumulations of leaves in fast current (leaf packs); within loose cobbles and pebbles in fast current; accumulations of leaves in slow current; and fine sediment deposits in slow current. Students first make written descriptions of each microhabitat and address questions such as: why would an aquatic insect want to live here, and what would be difficult about living here? Then, students collect some of the aquatic insects that live in each microhabitat, observe them with magnifying glasses, identify them with a field guide, and make their own sketches. Students answer questions in writing such as: how is this aquatic insect adapted for the physical conditions of the particular microhabitat, what do you think it eats, how do you think it avoids being eaten by larger animals, what important contribution do you think it makes to the stream ecosystem? After a specified time period, the instructor leads an inquiry discussion with the entire class. Discussions lead to conclusions about how ecological specializations such as these contribute to biodiversity, the importance of biodiversity, and the possible consequences of some human activities on biodiversity.

Chicken Wing Microbiology
Mariëlle Hoefnagels and Mark Walvoord, Department of Zoology, University of Oklahoma
In this workshop, we will present an abbreviated form of a multi-week laboratory in which students estimate the number of bacteria on store-bought chicken wings.  This lab introduces basic techniques in microbiology and teaches unforgettable lessons about safe food handling. During the first portion of the workshop, participants will create chicken wing washes, serially dilute the suspensions, and plate samples from the dilutions on agar.  We will then show photos of student results.  For the remainder of the workshop, we will discuss and apply possible ways to extend the lab, customize it to fit different teaching objectives, or make it more investigative. For example, students can design experiments to test different methods of reducing microbial contamination of the chicken wings, measure the microbial populations of other common foods, or identify some of the organisms growing on the plates.

Measuring community structure of a forest using the wandering quarter method
John Kell, Biology Department, Radford University, VA
A community is a group of different species occupying a specific area. Plant communities are often described briefly by their overall appearance, as with the terms "grasslands," "deciduous forest," or "boreal forest." However, plant communities can be more precisely described and quantified. One property of a community that is quantifiable is its structure. Community structure includes characteristics such as the number of species, the relative abundance of each species, and the size and density of the organisms within the community.

These properties of communities can be measured using data collected during a "wandering quarter" survey. This is a plotless survey method, that requires no set-up and minimal equipment. Participants zig-zag from tree to tree, always heading in the same general compass direction (always staying within one quadrant of the compass). Data collected can be used to calculate several common measures of plant community structure, including species richness, species diversity, relative basal area, stems per hectare, relative dominance, and importance value.

Importance values can be calculated after the size and number of individual trees of the various species are measured. The trees with the highest importance values will be those that exist in the greatest number or are of the greatest size -- these are the trees that may have the greatest effect on the community.

Examining Genetic Diversity in Disjunct Populations using Random DNA Markers
Listed as (Analysis of Population Subdivision Using DNA Polymorphisms)
Bob Sheehy and Judy Guinan, Biology Department, Radford University, VA
Molecular biological techniques have become very useful in the study of plant and animal ecology, evolution and conservation biology. These techniques are used to study naturally occurring genetic variation, and have greatly facilitated the understanding of many problems in behavioral ecology, population biology and evolutionary biology. This lab serves as a capstone lab experience uniting principles students have learned throughout the semester. Content includes ecology, population biology, genetics, and molecular biology. Skills include microscopy, electrophoresis, molecular techniques (pipetting, PCR, solutions), graphing and logarithms. We will examine two populations of terrestrial isopods ('Pill bugs' or 'Potato bugs' or 'Wood Lice') using Random Amplification of Polymorphic DNA, (RAPD Analysis). RAPD’s are robust and generally species independent. This lab can be modified and would be suitable for any organism with low vagility. Using this technique we are able to detect and analyze genetic variation within and between two different populations of isopods. This lab exercise could easily be modified for use in an introductory course for majors or non-majors.

Propagation of miniature roses by plant tissue culture
Michael Stone, Georgia Perimeter College, Dunwoody, GA
Tissue culture is a widely used propagation technique in modern agriculture because it allows production of many clonal plants from relatively little starting material. During this lab exercise, students learn the different steps involved in the tissue culture procedure, practice aseptic technique when handling explants, and observe the effects of different hormones and nutrient levels on explant development. This lab exercise is part of a one semester non-major’s botany course and requires four lab sessions over an 8-10 week period to complete. The first lab requires approximately 90 minutes and the subsequent lab periods only require 10-15 minutes each. Participants in this workshop will complete all stages of the tissue culture procedure using material started previously by the presenter. Other topics for discussion include construction of transfer boxes, stem washing apparatus, and sources for media and equipment.

Molecular Genetic Linkage Mapping Using Tribolium Beetles
(ABLE education grant recipient) Ann Yezerski, Department of Biology, King’s College, Wilkes-Barre, PA
This exercise strives to demonstrate the process by which modern genetic linkage maps are derived. Unlike traditional exercises in linkage mapping, this exercise uses molecular mapping techniques to demonstrate the concepts. As a full laboratory exercise this is a four-day process where the students participate in DNA extraction, RAPD-PCR, agarose gel electrophoresis on a large scale, gel scoring (data collection) and data analysis using software specialized for mapping purposes. These procedures closely mimic actual genetic linkage mapping research and better show how high-throughput techniques are utilized in today’s modern laboratory to collect and analyze large data sets, while still clearly defining the steps in creating a map.

Thursday June 23rd Workshops

A Student-built ROV Submarine for Exploration of Mountain Lake, Virginia
Dr. Jon C. Cawley, Roanoke College Environment Program, Adam Vittum, VirginiaTech
This workshop details the physical description and use as a teaching device of a small ROV submarine, built in 2004 to explore and video bottom features at Mountain Lake, Giles County, Virginia. This project represents an ongoing co-operative effort between the Wilderness
Conservancy at Mountain Lake, Roanoke College and Virginia Polytechnic Institute as academic partners. Mountain Lake is the only natural lake in the southern Appalachian Highlands. It is a low nutrient, high altitude, sub-alpine lake and associated ecosystem. In many ways the lake may be considered to be an environmental "early warning" system for much of the Southern Appalachians. It of particular interest because of its unusual geologic structure (a fault and crevice in the deepest portion of the lake). It is also a cyclic lake on the scale of decade to century, and has recently gone through the low portion of its cycle. The ROV is constructed of PVC, with direct umbilical to the surface.  It is controlled by use of 6 (12-volt) electrical mini bilge pumps, and is outfitted with an infrared/visible light underwater video camera, as well as dive lights. The ROV has been used to determine bottom textures across the lake, particularly in the deepest portion of the lake, at more than 95 feet of depth. The ROV is also designed for environmental educational use, at both college and high school level, as well as by visiting groups by the Wilderness Conservancy at Mountain Lake.

Discovering Devonian Microfossils
Charlie Drewes, Ecology, Evolution & Organismal Biology, Iowa State University
For decades, microfossils have been used by paleontologists and geologists in studies of biostratigraphy, paleoenvironmental reconstructions, and paleooceanography. Microfossils have also provided biologists with key insights into the ancient evolutionary history of biodiversity on earth. Despite their scientific importance, microfossils are seldom emphasized or used in general biology teaching labs, presumably because they are perceived as too miniscule and tedious to find or work with. The goal of this workshop is to change these perceptions by sharing simple methods and materials that readily and successfully engage students in the excitement of the search, the discovery, and the investigation of microfossils. Emphasis of this workshop will be on Paleozoic microfossils (Devonian Period, ~ 400 MYA) obtained from washed sievings of shale/limestone deposits in the Lime Creek Formation, Rockford, Iowa. Such sievings frequently include a rich diversity of microfossil specimens, such as: charophyte oogonia, foraminiferan tests, sponge spicules, bryozoan colony fragments, tentaculites, gastropod shells, scolecodents, ostracod valves, conodonts, and crinoid plates. During the workshop, novel, low-tech tools and methods will be shared that enable reliable manipulation and viewing of microfossils by students. In addition to generous, take-home samples of washed sievings, participants will receive hard-copies and an electronic image gallery (on CD) of microfossils from this Devonian fossil site.

Water Transport in Plants: Anatomy and Physiology
Robert C. Hodson, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Delaware
Plant biology is an important component of an introductory biology course. However because plants in general are slow to respond to variables, investigations suitable for a 2 to 3-hour laboratory experience are limited. We met this challenge by having students investigate the path and rate of water transport in herbaceous angiosperms, both monocots and dicots. This workshop presents a condensation of two, 3-hour laboratory sessions. In one phase we adopt a classic dye uptake experiment to determine the effect of various interventions, such as leaf detachment, on the path of upward water transport in a detached shoot. Photography of stem thin sections taken with a digital video camera aided by compound and stereo microscopes and a computer significantly enhance the presentation of observations and their interpretation. In a second phase we determine the affect of variables on the rate of transpiration using a moderately priced, very sensitive and stable electronic potometer. At the conclusion of these experimental phases we will present our findings and discuss projects that students may undertake to enhance inquiry-based learning.

Quorum Sensing/Bioluminescence
Dave Popham, Virginia Tech, VA
The bacterium Vibrio fischeri can produced light (bioluminescence). It normally does this only when it is growing symbiotically in the light organ of certain fish and squid species. The bacteria "know" that they are in a light organ because they are present at a high bacterial cell density, rather than the very dilute situation they are normally in when free in the sea water. The way they sense a high cell density is through "quorum sensing." The cells excrete a particular compound and then measure the concentration of that same compound in their environment.

We use several bacterial strains, each of which carry only part of the genes responsible for the quorum sensing and bioluminescence process. None of these strains make light alone. When two of these strains are grown next to each other on a plate, one is able to produce light. The interpretation is that one strain is MAKING the quorum sensing signal, but is unable to sense and respond to it, while the other strain cannot make the signal but is able to sense and respond to it by making light.

We also purify DNA from each strain and transform it into the other strains. In some cases this results in all the genes required for bioluminescence being present in a single strain, in other cases not.

Lessons:
How even very simple bacterial cells communicate with each other.
How the lack of a gene and the gain of a gene can change the phenotype of an organism.

Especially fun things about this:
Purifying DNA and making new recombinant strains.
The bacteria on the plates actually glow in the dark. Students take the plates in a dark room and SEE their results.

Personal Behavior and Partner’s Sexual History: a Simulation of the Spread of HIV
Ralph Preszler and Amy Marion, New Mexico State University, NM
Participants will simulate, detect, and evaluate risk factors associated with the spread of HIV through a population. Each person begins the simulation with an “uninfected” buffer solution. Individuals sequentially mix their solution with solutions from a pool of potential mates, some of which contain an antigen used to represent HIV. Individuals are randomly assigned to mix their solution with from one to four of the tubes from the mating pool. The sexual history of the tubes in this potential mates pool becomes increasingly complex, and the proportion of the tubes in this pool that are infected increases, as participants sequentially work through the simulation. After the mixing, we will evaluate each individual’s solution with a modified ELISA (Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbant Assay) procedure to screen for the antigen representing HIV. We will use these ELISA results to reconstruct the spread of “HIV” through the population. Participants then evaluate the impact of two risk factors (number of mates; and mates sexual history) on the probability that an individual will be infected. ABLE participants also will discuss how the simulation exercise could be modified to consider the impacts of other risk, or risk avoidance, behaviors on infection probability.

Digital Documentation: Merging the Traditional Laboratory Experience with Digital Imaging Technology
Bruce W. Robart, Kimberly A. Ziance, Melonie Dropik, University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown, PA
Traditional organismal biology (botany, mycology, phycology, entomology, etc…) labs typically present the student with questions that guide them through an observational exercise in which they are intended to discover important characteristics about a single specimen that can be generalized to a larger group of organisms. Students sketch what they see and produce drawings that may be faithful renderings of the images they observe, but these renderings often fail to provide a visual representation that illustrates the important characteristics that make the specimen an exemplar worthy of study. Students lack the expertise to differentiate between the important characteristics that can be generalized to an entire phylum and the incidental artifacts of the particular image being studied. An alternative and innovative approach to accomplishing these types of laboratory exercises is presented in this workshop. This approach serves to promote scientific inquiry and provides students with a means of capturing actual images for further study.

In this investigation, students will become proficient in the use of integrated digital technology as they capture images of exemplary specimens with digital microscopes. Students can later use these images individually to compose and illustrate original lab manuals (digital notebooks) or in collaborative groups to design multimedia presentations. Students actively engage in their learning and participate in high levels of cognitive functioning as they construct knowledge about the phyla they are studying. The creative aspects of these exercises provide for a high interest laboratory experience that taps into intrinsic motivation and leads to student success in demonstrating content mastery of the subject at hand. This type of digital documentation exercise can be adapted for any college biology laboratory at any level. The sample exercises used in this workshop are intended for an introductory level biology laboratory course.

Rooting and Shooting: Resource Allocation Strategies of Plants
Dan Johnson, Department of Biology, Wake Forest University, Winston–Salem, NC
Plants have a finite supply of carbon, nitrogen, and other resources for growth and reproduction. They are limited to what is stored in their seeds, can be extracted from the soil, and can be fixed by photosynthesis. Various species allocate their limited resources in different ways. Individual plants within a single species also allocate resources differently in response to their local environment. In this lab, students see these differences in energy allocation firsthand.

For Part 1 of this exercise, the instructor grows nursery flats of monocots (rye, oats) and dicots (radishes, alfalfa, broad beans) in high– versus low–nitrogen conditions. In lab students measure root and shoot lengths and weights of two different species, and the class pools their data. Using pooled data students calculate an average root:shoot (R:S) weight ratio and R:S length ratio for each species, under low– and high–nitrogen conditions. Based on their observations and calculations, students must describe the “allocation strategy” that each species uses. Finally, students must predict how each species might allocate its resources if challenged by a stress such as drought, inter–specific competition, crowding, or herbivory.

Part 2 of the exercise is optional, but highly recommended. In Part 2, students design and set up their own experiments. Students can test one or more of the predictions they made at the end of Part 1, or ask their own questions relating to resource allocation. Students set up their experiments the same day they complete Part 1, and collect their data 2–3 weeks later. During the workshop participants will see examples of experiments that our students have performed in the past. Together we will develop a list of questions that students could explore using these basic lab methods.

An Introduction to Phylogenetic Analysis
Robert J. Kosinski, Genetics, Biochemistry, and Life Science Studies, Clemson University, SC
In this laboratory, students will determine the degree of relatedness in lineages by both molecular similarity and cladistic analysis of derived characters. The molecular similarity exercise analyzes the beta chain of hemoglobin in seven primates. It has a “low-tech” version and a version that uses bioinformatics tools and introduces students to the Swiss-Prot protein database. The cladistics exercise first teaches students to analyze hypothetical data both with and without homoplasy. Because the data were derived from a computer simulation of evolution, the correctness of the student conclusions can easily be assessed. Finally, the students test their skill by inferring evolutionary relationships in real data on the flightless birds, and in an entertaining exercise on the “evolution” of “organisms” composed of nuts, washers, and bolts. At the conclusion of the lab, the students can usually perform these last two exercises with no difficulty. The exercise includes directions, all student worksheets, and complete answer sheets for the instructor.

ABLE 2005 conference program