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Goal of the BIOL 3004 course
Goal of the BIOL 3004 course
For BIOL 3004 you sign up for a specific class section, which dictates the general direction of your research experience. You will work in a group of 3-6 students to conduct your own research project. You will develop a hypothesis, conduct lab- or computer-based tests, interpret your results, and communicate your findings. If you sign up for a lab-based research area, you'll carry out your experiments in our Active Learning Lab. If you sign up for a computer-based research area, you'll identify and work with existing data to address your research question and test your hypothesis.
For the Fall 2025 semester, all class sections will meet in person at their designated weekly meeting time:
sections 001 & 002 - human microbiome research (computational microbiology)
sections 003 & 004 - global change ecology (computer-based research)
sections 005 to 010 - microbial evolution (lab-based research using bacteria)
sections 011 to 015 - environmental toxicology (lab-based research using zebrafish)
Toward the end of the semester each group will develop a poster presentation that communicates the results of their independent research project to their CBS peers and other members of the CBS community. To further develop each student’s scientific communication skills, there is an individual final paper assignment due in the last week of the semester. This paper is written in the form of a primary scientific manuscript, similar to a journal article.
Throughout the course you will be able to use previous lab and analytical skills in order to create a comprehensive and well-executed project. Doing so will allow you to gain experience doing scientific research as well as producing competent scientific work.
This course may seem daunting and/or slightly tedious, but putting in the necessary effort will greatly benefit your growth as an academic and biologist!
Work inside and outside of class time
Work inside and outside of class time
Regular attendance and participation are critical to your and your group’s success in this course. You are expected to attend your discussion section every week and be prepared to report on how your research project is going. You and your group are also responsible for scheduling time in the lab and elsewhere in order to carry out your project and meet assignment deadlines. You should expect to spend 4-6 hours per week on your research outside of the discussion section. The class begins during the first week of the semester.
Active Learning Lab
Active Learning Lab
(Opened Fall 2019)
(Opened Fall 2019)
Lab work for BIOL 3004 occurs in a lab space specially designed and built to facilitate student research: the CBS Active Learning Lab. Located on the third floor of the Biological Sciences Center, this lab is open to students throughout the semester and fully equipped for modern biology research projects. The lab is staffed by experienced undergraduate TAs who can help groups at all stages of their research project.
Lab hours
Lab hours
The Active Learning Lab is open to BIOL 3004 students:
10AM-8PM Monday to Thursday
10AM-6PM Friday
noon-6PM Saturday and Sunday
These hours apply during the academic semester, except for scheduled university holidays/breaks. Students are expected to sign up for lab time in advance, and the lab may close early if no one is signed up to work.
Course text
Course text
The textbook for this course is: “Writing in the Biological Sciences: A Comprehensive Resource for Science Communication,” Fifth Edition, by Angelika H. Hofmann. This is the same textbook used in BIOL 1961. The book is available electronically via Course Works in Canvas, or students can opt out of Course Works Complete and purchase an electronic or paper copy on their own if they prefer. If students have questions about Course Works access or billing, please write to: courseworks@umn.edu .
Lab Notebook Information
Lab Notebook Information
eLabJournal is a website that hosts your lab notebook for the semester and stores background information about your research area. You will use it for a fair amount of material which will help direct you through this course. Not only does it contain protocols for the treatment methods and assays which you will need to perform in order to be successful in this course, but it will also serve as your lab notebook.
Your lab notebook will document and provide thorough explanations of the work you are conducting. It will be evaluated by the TA and there are examples provided for how proper lab journals should be formatted. The lab notebook serves as a step-by-step explanation of how you reached your final conclusions and points of discussion.
Be sure to familiarize yourself with the layout of eLabJournal. It is a fantastic resource for understanding what tests you are able to conduct.
(Note: Computational microbiology students use GitHub instead of eLabJournal for their lab notebooks)
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
This section was created mostly by Michael Dahl, a transfer student who took BIOL 3004 and created this guide as part of their honors project.
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