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          Lab is an integral part of any biology course. Biology IS a laboratory science and requires a lab component which permits and encourages discovery and creativity. Your lab experiences in Biology 101, 102 and upper level biology courses will:

• engage you and your fellow students in open-ended investigative processes, using scientific problem-solving,

• allow you to apply information you have heard and seen in lecture, thereby reinforcing and clarifying biological principles and concepts in living systems. Sometimes you will have covered topics in lecture and then in lab which will reinforce information, while other times you will work with information first in lab which will allow you to better understand information when it is covered in lecture,

• involve multiple senses in three-dimensional rather than two-dimensional learning experiences important for greater retention of concepts and for accommodation of different learning styles,

• help you to begin to understand the nature of science (its unpredictability and complexity) and to appreciate the diversity of life on earth; the diversity labs in Biology 101 will help provide the basis for understanding evolutionary patterns of major groups of life forms and will also give you background for covering information on animal organ systems as well as plant organs and life cycles in Biology 102,

• provide you opportunities to work with other students and biology faculty and staff in the lab settings, as well as these faculty and staff serving as models for scientific attitudes and behavior,

• ensure course transferability to four-year schools, as well as to graduate and professional schools within and outside of Virginia.