CLUES Program
Documentation
Links to Files
Welcome to our Biotechnology Program Curricula
at College of the
Canyons!
These curricula are gleaned from a variety of resources (see literature cited section in each lab)
and represent over 15 different lab activities suitable for an introductory course in
biotechnology. You are welcome to reproduce and/or modify these labs.
Two labs warrant special attention:
The ELISA kits are available from Modern Biology Inc.
The pGLO labs are derived from Bio-Rad.
The companies should be contacted to obtain their kits.
This way, you can use the included labs with confidence.
If you elect to make you own reagents, and not use the kits, these labs will need substantial
revision on your part to avoid plagiarism.
All of the labs are available in PDF and MS Word formats.
Please read this entire page prior to printing and using any of the labs.
Editing or Modifying Laboratory Documentation
Editing Note: Adobe Acrobat files are nice as they maintain file format on all computer platforms.
If you want to modify a document, I recommend you use MS Word with Times New Roman at font size 12.
Check the document prior to printing. You can also edit the PDF file if you have Adobe Acrobat, not just the free Reader.
-Jim Wolf
The overriding reason for creating this group of labs was to generate a cohesive set of introductory activities. Many biotechnology lab manuals are either too focused (i.e. all DNA), too vocational (i.e. manufacturing) or too reference oriented. Furthermore, the curricula available through outreach programs, lab manuals, colleagues and other sources; while useful, make it difficult to present a standard template. By putting them all into a standard format, the students know better what expect.
The labs start off with a cover page that helps to put the material in
context. This is followed by a list of learning objectives. Next is an introduction to the lab focusing on theory and technique. Then
there is the lab itself with numerous start and stop points, which allow easy integration into a number of time
schedules. Lastly there are some post lab questions.
I have the students use a lab notebook, so a lot of their writing appear in the lab notebook.
There is a dedicated lab for learning how to write a proper scientific lab
notebook. One problem I have noticed is that students who write in their lab notebook, may labor under some misconceptions as to the crucial points of the lab. To this point, I have included post lab write-ups. These one page documents help to ensure an understanding of the material. I have the student complete these prior to leaving lab. The post lab write up and notebook exercises all start in conjunction with the first “real” biotech lab,
HPLC. Prior to this lab, there are a number of activities designed to ensure students are up to speed. The lab syllabi is a link to suggested lab sequence that I use. The following
is a description of the lab activities and their sequence.
The labs start with an exercise designed to get students familiar with lab equipment and their location in lab; Introduction/Safety Quiz and Lab Check Out. Next, students go through exercises on the Metric System, Data Graphing, Lab Notebooks and math analysis/solution preparation. The last two labs are derived from in-house handouts. I use these two labs, as many of my students have limited background in math and/or solution chemistry. These preparatory labs are needed to help ensure the student has a strong foundation in basic science.
The “real” biotechnology labs start with HPLC. They become progressively more complex as the semester proceeds.
Gel Filtration, DNA electrophoresis and pAMP, pGLO, ELISA, PCR and Protein Electrophoresis lab are all free standing. Tissue Culture, Protein
Standard Curve and Protein Extraction are linked in that they use the standard curve to determine the protein concentration of their cell line.
Be prepared to adapt as needed if these labs are used out of order, or if less than all three are used. It should also be noted that many of these labs
have additional in house adjuncts. For the HPLC and Gel Filtration labs, I provide more information on the devices used in labs (with fraction collectors,
pumps, sensors, etc.) For cell culture and transformation labs, a technique based handout and videos are used. The DNA fingerprinting lab has an
adjunct relating to mapping the lambda genome with restriction endonucleases.
The ELISA and PCR labs utilize computer tutorials and the Protein Electrophoresis and Western blots all stem from a evolutionary biology
perspective and handouts on protein evolution are provided. A copy of my lab syllabi is provided in this link.
Technical Prep and Post Labs
The final two adjuncts are detailed lab prep sheets and post labs summaries. The prep sheets are in Excel spread sheet, and can be easily updated/modified as needed. Please note: certain assumptions regarding technical prep have been made. They are not exhaustive and if you have any questions, feel free to contact
me (Jim Wolf). The post lab sheets are each one page long and start with the HPLC
lab.
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