Five Biology Experiments for College You Need to Try in 2022

Students come to college biology classes with a diversity of prior laboratory experiences and a range of practical laboratory skills. Modern Biology assists instructors in bringing every student to an acceptable level of technique with interesting experiments that reinforce scientific methods and meticulous reporting skills.

Here are five biology experiments for college from Modern Biology that you need to try in 2022.

Forming Hypotheses About DNA

The ability to form and test hypotheses is fundamental to mastering the scientific method. Our Modern Biology experiment B1-1: Properties of DNA, in which students precipitate strands of DNA from solution with alcohol and manipulate them with glass rods, gives students an opportunity to think outside the box.

This experiment is deceptively simple. After all, it’s also a demonstration activity in middle school. But the ability to look at a simple exercise from a scientific perspective sets the tone for future experiments more clearly on the college level. And the simplicity of this experiment makes it an opportunity to get all the students on the same page regarding laboratory procedures and reports.

Introducing Your Students to Electrophoresis

Electrophoresis is a fundamental investigative tool for college biology. And it’s a topic that college students should feel at home with. After all, they submit samples for electrophoretic testing for COVID-19 on a nearly continuous basis.

For college biology classes, electrophoresis is the basic tool for isolating, visualizing, measuring, characterizing, and comparing DNA, RNA, and other large proteins. Students get the basic lab skills for electrophoresis in Modern Biology’s Experiment O3: An Introduction to Electrophoresis. Even college students may need experience using a pipette and making sure wells are filled equally. They may need reminders about ensuring that reagents are used at the proper pH and temperatures. And because slight errors in technique can lead to large differences in results, students will have to evaluate their technique to interpret their results.

Capstone Experiments for Life Science Survey Courses

Modern Biology also provides complete kits for capstone experiments for survey courses in biology. These experiments require students to demonstrate university-level skills. They take your students beyond the mere retention of facts and vocabulary to validate their skills in the scientific method and their ability to place science in a social context.

Modern Biology provides a complete kit for studying the genetics of sickle cell disease that students use to analyze their own DNA. Instructors then lead the discussion of results to an understanding of the social, economic, and racial barriers to obtaining treatment for sickle cell disease. They can then build on the results of this experiment to carry their survey course experience into other fields of study.

Of course, not every student seeks a social emphasis in their overview of biology. Your students could prefer simply to have fun with biology. For them, you could offer opportunities for building a bacterial computer to solve the pancake problem or genetically modifying a strain of E. coli so it glows in the dark.

Modern Biology transforms college biology instruction from a didactic exercise into an experimental exploration. Every Modern Biology experiment reinforces student abilities to form and test a hypothesis, and to record their process and results in professionally acceptable language and form. 

When you take advantage of the tools of Modern Biology, you can integrate the scientific method into your teaching every day. Modern Biology takes high school and college biology beyond being a merely descriptive course. We provide all the non-toxic, student-safe reagents and test materials you need for every lab exercise, at a price that won’t strain your budget. 

Over 500,000 students learn biology with the help of Modern Biology Inc. products every year. We want to show you why thousands of teachers trust our products. Contact Modern Biology Inc online or call us at (765) 446-4220 from 9 to 5 Eastern Time weekdays for more information.