Life107: what to expect in semester 2

Hi all, I hope you exams have been going well....semester 2 is almost here - here is a recap of some of the important points from your 'introduction to semester 2 of Life107' lecture you had at the end of last semester:

This semester LIFE107 is going to be a little different as the focus is going to move from learning good laboratory practice to Experimental Design and Analysis! 

- sounds scary? Never fear! You are not going to be expected to individually design and run an entire experiment from scratch! Phew! Rather, you are going to work with your group and you will discuss, plan and do experiments and data analysis together, PLUS, you will have a friendly demonstrator always at hand ready to help you out if you get stuck! Sound less bad now?

NOTE:
1. Your practical sessions will last for the entire day 

- so you all should come to your lab at 9am! 
2. You will have two experiments this semester, you will be setting up both experiments one week, and then collecting and analysing the data a fortnight later.
3. You will either be doing labs in weeks 1 and 3 (Group A),
or in weeks 5 and 7 (Group B)

(check your lab allocation and groups - in the recent VITAL announcement)

For these two experiments, you are going to be expected to work in your team to discuss the background information and then generate a hypothesis. You will then plan your experiment to test your hypothesis and as a team you will perform the experiment. The experiments both need  some time for the results to appear, so two weeks later you will come back to the lab to collect and analyse the results from the two experiments.

ALSO, this semester you will be recording everything you do in the lab in your blue book, just like a researcher would do!!  More advice on how to use your lab book will be coming in another post soon! :)

This module is designed to give you the freedom to think! There will be no step-by-step guides here! So come with your thinking cap on and get ready for team-work! While this might all seem frightening at first, remember you will be supported every step of the way, and I really hope you will end up having fun :)