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A REAPPRAISAL OF THE STATUS OF

Introductory Biology Laboratory Education in
U.S. Colleges & Universities

Article in The American Biology Teacher January 2009

DOI: 10.1662/0002-7685(2005)067[0525:AROTSO]2.0.CO;2

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A REAPPRAISAL OF THE STATUS OF
Introductory Biology Laboratory Education
in U.S. Colleges & Universities
M A R S H A L L D. S U N D B E R G
I n 1993 two of us published a survey of introduc-
tory biology laboratory instruction in colleges and uni-
versities of the U.S. in order to document the status of
laboratory instruction, and in particular, the use of
inquiry based instruction (Sundberg & Armstrong,
1993). Now, following a decade of biological education
reform including such pedagogic techniques as case
MARSHALL D. SUNDBERG is Professor of Biology, Emporia State
University, Emporia, KS 66801; e-mail sundberm@emporia.edu.
JOSEPH E. ARMSTRONG is Professor of Botany, Illinois State
University, Normal, IL 61790; e-mail: jearmstr@ilstu.edu. E.
WILLIAM WISCHUSEN is Associate Professor of Biology, Louisiana
State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803; e-mail:
ewischu@lsu.edu.
J O S E P H E. A R M S T R O N G E. W I L L I A M W I S C H U S E N
studies (Herreid, C.F.), cooperative learning (Lord, T.,
1998), learning cycle (Lawson, A.E., 2000), and a vari-
ety of other student-active approaches (McNeal &
DAvanze, 1997), we felt it was timely to reassess that
status of laboratory instruction to document changes
that may have occurred and current trends.
Our questionnaire was modified slightly from the
original to include several questions on the use of com-
puters, the Internet, and multimedia materials in the
laboratory. It was sent to 58 research universities, 50
comprehensive state universities, and 50 liberal arts
colleges to provide broad national coverage. This sam-
ple included each of the 70 schools (predominantly
research universities) that responded to our 1993
INTRODUCTORY BIOLOGY LABORATORY EDUCATION 525
survey. The following is based on a total of 65 respons- offer a two-semester sequence; at comprehensive univer-
es: 34 from research universities, 15 from comprehen- sities this increases to two-thirds (Figure 2). Laboratory
sive colleges, and 16 from liberal arts colleges. Twenty- courses continue to have large enrollments. As in 1993,
three of the 70 institutions responding in 1993 pro- more than half of the respondents reported course
vided a direct comparison with the previous survey. enrollments of more than 500 students: Even at com-
This cohort of respondents will be referred to as fol- prehensive universities, 41% of the courses are this large.
low-up throughout the remainder of the paper. A copy Predictably, liberal arts colleges have smaller enrollment;
of the survey and a complete table of responses may be 50% of these schools report course enrollments in the
found on-line at http://academic.emporia.edu/ range of 100-250 students.
sundberm/biolabs.htm.
Increasing enrollment in laboratory courses dur-
ing the past decade is indicated by the increase in the
Course
Organization
While we frequently Majors/Non-majors
hear stories about labo-
0.7
ratory courses being cut
at other institutions,
0.6
usually for budgetary 0.5
Percent

reasons, there is remark- 0.4

ably little evidence of 0.3
change in course organi- 0.2
zation based on the sur- 0.1
vey results. Two schools 0
in each category offered 1 2 3 4
a laboratory in their Laboratory Types
majors course only, but Research Comprehensive Liberal Arts
all schools reported
offering some laboratory
instruction. About 40% Figure 1.
of the schools still com- Percentage of schools offering: no laboratory (1); majors only laboratories (2); separate majors and
bine majors and non-
non-majors laboratories (3); and combined majors and non-majors laboratories (4).
majors in their laborato-
ry courses. This is virtu-
ally unchanged from the
percentage observed a
decade agoboth in Duration of Laboratory Courses
terms of the overall 0.7
response and in respons- 0.6
es from the 23 follow-up 0.5
Percent

schools. Not surprising- 0.4

ly, liberal arts colleges 0.3
are more likely to offer a 0.2
single combined course 0.1
(64%), while research 0
and comprehensive uni- 1 2 3 4 5
versities are more likely Quarters/Semesters
to have separate courses
(Figure 1). It is interest- Research Comprehensive Liberal Arts
ing to speculate on
whether this difference
Figure 2.
is economically or philo-
sophically driven. More
Duration of laboratory courses: single quarter (1); two quarters (2); three quarters (3); single semester
than half of all schools (4); two semesters (5).

526 THE AMERICAN BIOLOGY TEACHER, VOLUME 67, NO. 9, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005
number of laboratory sections offered each term. Since
1993 the number of schools offering more than 30 sec-
tions of a course has increased by 10% or more. The
overall gain was from 34% to 45%, an increase con-
firmed by the follow-up schools that increased from
34% to 44%. Among research universities, a slight
decrease in the cohort of schools offering 10-20 lab sec-
tions was responsible for the gain in larger sections.
This suggests that enrollment increases have been met
by increasing room use efficiency and by increasing
class size. There is a slight decrease in the number of
rooms assigned to laboratory instruction, particularly
in the follow-up cohort where the number of programs
with four or more available laboratories fell from 23%
to 12 %, so the increased number of sections must be
due to extended scheduling of existing rooms. At the
same time there were large jumps in class size. In 1993,
55% of the classes had a student/faculty ratio in the
range of 10-20/1 and 41% ranged up to 30/1. Today
the 21-30/1 range is found at 70% of the research uni-
versities, 71% of the comprehensive universities, and
43% of liberal arts colleges. Three percent of the
research universities and 12% of the comprehensive
universities have student faculty ratios greater than
30/1, whereas no schools reported ratios this high in
our previous survey.
While more sections are being offered and the
enrollment per section is increasing, fewer classrooms
have multiple instructors assigned to them. Only 9%
of research universities and 7% of liberal arts colleges meetings. Only 4% of the respondents in 1993 indi-
have more than two instructors (including undergrad-
uate assistants) in the laboratory. Twenty-one percent
Laboratory Instructors
1 has declined to 6% and
0.8
Percent
of these same category schools report two instructors
per laboratory. Most schools (79% of research univer-
sities, 94% of comprehensive colleges, and 71% of lib-
eral arts colleges) have a single instructor in the class-
room.
We note with interest that liberal arts colleges tend
to have the smallest classes and at the same time have
more instructors in the laboratory, primarily due to the
use of undergraduate assistants, a strategy reported by
14% of these colleges (Figure 3). Research universities
make even heavier use of undergraduate assistants
(33%) to provide additional help in the laboratories.
Only 6% of comprehensive universities reported using
undergraduate assistants. Graduate TAs provide the
bulk of laboratory instruction at comprehensive (71%)
and research (91%) universities. Only 24% of the
largest institutions use tenure-track faculty to teach in
the introductory laboratories; while 71% of the com-
prehensive universities do so. Surprisingly, only 71%
of the liberal arts colleges reported using faculty to
teach in laboratories. However, half of these schools
employ career instructors to teach laboratory sections.
The heavy use of student instructors, either gradu-
ate or undergraduate, suggests that TA training should
be important. The most notable change in this regard
during the last decade is the increase in number of
schools offering independent training sessions of more
than three days, in addition to regular weekly pre-lab
cated they offered such training; now 15% of research
universities and 6% of comprehensive colleges report
that they provide extended training. While 14% of the
originally surveyed
schools offered a for-
mal, for-credit course in
laboratory instruction
in 1993, this number
12% in research and
comprehensive univer-

0.6
sities respectively.
0.4
0.2 Content &
0
1 2 3 4
Materials
Instructor Type The most signifi-
cant changes in biology
Research Comprehensive Liberal Arts
laboratory instruction
during the past decade
Figure 3. relate to the way labora-
Laboratory instructors: tenure-track faculty (1); career instructors (2); graduate teaching assistants (3); tory instruction in
undergraduate assistants (4). introductory biology is
taught. A major trend

INTRODUCTORY BIOLOGY LABORATORY EDUCATION 527

during this time has
been a move to student- Type of Laboratory Experience
active exercises. In fact,
one of the motives of 1
our original survey was 0.8
to gauge interest in

Percent
workshops on imple-
0.6
menting inquiry and 0.4
investigation in the
0.2
classroom. A faculty
workshop that grew out 0
of that process (LAB- 1 2
SHOP, NSF #USE
9156094) was one of
Research
the first of many spon-
sored by NSF and other
organizations promot- Figure 4.
ing process-oriented Type of laboratory experience: traditional field and/or wet lab (1); computer simulations (2); inquiry-
instruction in the biolo- based investigations (3); open investigation (4); online investigation (5).
gy laboratory. One of
the fruits of these efforts
is evident in the
response to our question about sources of materials for
laboratory instruction. A decade ago fewer than 20% of
the respondents indicated that they adapted materials
from workshops or conferences. Today about 40% at
each type of institution use such materials, and among
the follow-up respondents this rises to 48%. While 7 to
24% of the responding schools indicate that they use
commercially available lab materials, essentially
unmodified, which is a proportion similar to the 19%
on our previous survey, all but one school in each cat-
egory report using internally developed manuals.
Again, this is not dramatically different from the 89% a
decade ago.
The content of todays manuals may reflect the
trend toward student-active inquiry and process-based
science instruction. Evidence for the previous state-
ment is in the type of laboratory investigations report-
ed. In 1993 only 10% of the responding schools
reported an investigation-based laboratory curriculum.
Today most schools report using inquiry: 79% of
research universities, 88% of comprehensive universi-
ties, and 71% of liberal arts colleges. Particularly note-
worthy is that half of the liberal arts colleges (50%)
report using open investigations in their introductory
courses. For students this represents an exposure to
authentic research early in their careers and may help
to explain the proportionally high number of gradu-
ates from liberal arts colleges who eventually earn a
doctorate in science, mathematics and engineering (we
recognize the selectivity bias in the student popula-
tions that would also be a factor in determining these
proportions).
3 4 5
Experience Type
Comprehensive Liberal Arts
Our earlier study did not examine the impact of
computers in the laboratory classroom because they
were rarely available. Today computers are a significant
resource for laboratory instruction at most institutions.
Only at liberal arts colleges are a significant number of
laboratory courses taught with no computers in the
classroom (36%). Students in more than half of all
courses have access to networked computers, 60%,
65%, and 57% at research, comprehensive, and liberal
arts schools respectively. Nearly 3/4 of these have
Internet access (research is lower at only 61%) and 2/3
have multimedia capability (except liberal arts is lower
at 43%). The data suggest that there are have and
have not institutions, particularly among liberal arts
colleges. If computers are available at all, there are usu-
ally multiple networked machines with Internet and
multimedia capabilities.
Computers are not the only new resource that has
become available for laboratory instruction during the
past decade. Access to virtually every other resource for
laboratory instruction increased compared to the data
from 1993. The smallest gain overall, based on the fol-
low-up schools, was in the availability of an animal
room (42% to 48%) to support laboratory instruction.
There was a gain of more than 20% in the availability of
resources for student projects, as opposed to maintain-
ing materials for classroom use or all-class experiments
(Figure 5). This is exactly what we would expect with an
increase in inquiry and investigative activities, especial-
ly open investigations and independent projects.
Perhaps the most surprising change, given the per-
ception of cutbacks in laboratory instruction, is the

528 THE AMERICAN BIOLOGY TEACHER, VOLUME 67, NO. 9, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005
direction of change in
spending on laboratory Non-Computing Instructional Resources
courses. As before,
more than half of the 1.2
responding institutions 1
spend more than $10 0.8

Percent
per student to support
0.6
the laboratory. Follow-
up schools increased 0.4
from 52% to 56% 0.2
charging more than a 0
$10 lab fee, but this was 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
a considerably smaller Resource
increase than reported
overall. Among liberal Research Comprehensive Liberal Arts 1993 Survey
arts colleges, 71%
spend more than $10 Figure 5.
while the correspon- Non-Computing laboratory instructional resources: greenhouse space for plant maintenance (1); green-
ding percentages for
house space for student projects (2); growth chamber for maintenance (3); growth chamber for stu-
comprehensive and
dent projects (4); animal room for maintenance (5); animal room for student projects (6); natural area
research universities are
71% and 64% respec- for class or field work (7).
tively. To help defray
these costs, more
schools are now charging a lab fee and the lab fees are but as a result at least indirect evidence suggests that the
higher than in the past. A decade ago, fewer than half quality of the laboratory experience is improving as
of the responding institutions charged any laboratory inquiry and student-active investigation account for a
fee while today more than half do. The notable excep- greater share of laboratory activities. Finally, we hope
tion is liberal arts colleges where more than 3/4 of the that these results will be useful in formulating strong
responding institutions still charge no lab fee. On the arguments against cutting back on laboratory instruc-
other hand, the 21% that do have a fee charge $10 or tion at any institution where this is proposed.
more. More than 3/4 of the comprehensive and We thank the many respondents for taking the
research universities charge a fee of more than $5 and time to respond to our survey. Although such surveys
more than half charge more than $10. Rather than can be onerous, without them we have no means of
being a drain on university resources, it appears that at assessing trends and changes in biological instruction.
least at some institutions, laboratories have become a
cash cow. One respondent from a major public
research institution notes, A $70 lab fee is assessed References
($55.00) too much). A $15 per student fee would be
Herreid, C.F. Co-Director, National Center for Case Study
sufficient but the Deans office collects the entire
Teaching in Science. Available online at: http://ublib.
amount and keeps the excess. buffalo.edu/libaries/projects/cases/case.html.
In summary, contrary to the frequent perception Lawson, A.E. (2000). A learning cycle approach to introduc-
that laboratories are being cut from the introductory ing osmosis. The American Biology Teacher, 58(1), 38-42.
biology curriculum as a cost saving measure, the
Lord, T. (1998). Cooperative learning that really works in
responses to this survey suggest that laboratory instruc-
biology teaching using constructivist-based activities to
tion is alive and perhaps growing more vigorous, challenge student teams. The American Biology Teacher,
although in larger-size classes. The old cookbook 60(8), 580-588.
approach is being replaced by inquiry and student-
active investigations. While access to the Web and mul- McNeal, A.P. & DAvanze, C. (Eds.) (1997). Student-Active
timedia resources is becoming increasingly important, Science: Models of Innovation in College Science Teaching.
Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace College Publishers.
access to living materials in greenhouses, growth cham-
bers, animal rooms, and natural areas remain para- Sundberg, M.D. & Armstrong, J.E. (1993). The status of lab-
mount, even more so than in the past. Students are bear- oratory instruction for introductory biology in U.S. uni-
ing a larger burden for the costs of these opportunities, versities. The American Biology Teacher, 55(3), 144-146.

INTRODUCTORY BIOLOGY LABORATORY EDUCATION 529

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