Biology 105 Laboratory Report
The Biology 105 laboratory component was one of the first big, long, scary labs that I partook in at MNSU during my first semester. Here, I learned a lot about lab equipment, software, and biological theory that expanded my knowledge learned in the lecture portion of the course.
One of our major assignments for this laboratory was to compose a scientific paper based on the findings of one of our labs regarding the enzymatic rate of peroxidase, which is the peroxisomal enzyme in turnips. The lab itself spanned one, three-hour laboratory period, and included 3 miniature lab experiments within its entirety. Our job was then to compose a scientific paper based off of our findings, and research credible sources to use as support for those findings. This project is linked below.
I believe that this experience helped me meet the research competency level 3 in 'information literacy' because I was able to evaluate and incorporate sources into my knowledge base of information in this paper. I incorporated 5 credible sources to supplement my knowledge and findings on this research project regarding an enzyme in turnips. This experience also helped me to meet levels 1-3 in 'information synthesis.' I met level 1 because I was able to organize others’ ideas into this paper in both the introductory and discussion sections to both introduce knowledge on this subject and supplement/argue my own findings. I met level 2 when I learned about and included diverse perspectives on this topic by not only reading through and choosing 5 sources for this project that both supplemented and varied slightly with my findings, but by also coming across sources during my research time that did not coincide with my findings. This showed me that even the tiniest difference in how you run the experiment can change your results and also that it is quite easy to have sources of error within your research. Not all findings are going to be the same; that’s why further research is conducted! Finally, I met level 3 because this paper included 3 separate but related experiments of which I was able to create hypotheses for, after performing primary research using the multiple sources that I found.
Throughout this laboratory, I became more equipped to move into more complex research experiments and laboratories with a better understanding of running experiments, collecting data, and ethically integrating sources into my reports. I now have the confidence to be able to synthesize and ethically use information in larger pieces of work.