Project labs in physiology.

Projects in which students design and carry out their own experiments can be a basis for physiology laboratories. A sequence of such projects is described and evaluated informally. It is argued that these inquiry-oriented project labs serve to motivate and teach students important concepts and attitudes about the nature of science and their ability to participate actively in it. Although physiology laboratories are a standard part of physiology courses, teachers are not always clear about the purposes of these activities. At least three categories of purpose seem important: the conceptual, the motivational, and the technical. As laboratories are being replaced in some cases by videodisc or computer simulations, it is important to see which purposes can be served by simulations and which cannot. Project-based laboratories, even more than standard laboratories, can serve the technical, motivational, and conceptual purposes for our laboratory teaching.