ABLE 2005 Abstracts

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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.