BIOLAB is a free service to all educators operated by J. E. Armstrong, Dept. of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University, and M. Sundberg, Dept. of Botany, Louisiana State University. BIOLAB was initiated and supported by the National Science Foundation (USE-9156094). Additional assistance has come from the College of Arts & Sciences, Dept. of Biological Sciences, and Center for Academic Computing at Illinois State University.
BIOLAB makes available a variety of laboratory exercises in biology for all educational, non-commercial uses. Some of the exercises are the products of an NSF sponsored faculty workshop and other NSF supported projects. Other materials have been donated by biologists from many institutions. Various articles and news items of interest to biology instructors or relating to science education have been posted. Materials for teaching science and biology in the Elementary and High School classroom were obtained from other science education projects at ISU.
Documents posted on BIOLAB that you view with a browser are ASCII files converted into hypertext by formating tags placed around portions of the text and document body. The files have an .htm ending. In all cases a plain ASCII version exists in the same directory (.txt ending). In some cases a ZIPed (compacted) version exists as the only version because of size or packaging (several related files can be included in 1 ZIP file (.zip). If you know how to deal with these files and download materials on the WWWeb, fine. Click here if you want detailed instructions and maybe we can help you out.
Yes! If you have some innovative laboratory exercises that use or promote a problem-solving or investigative approach, and if you are willing to share, you may submit materials for posting. Any other item similar to extant BIOLAB postings or other items you think may be of interest to our user group will also be considered. Click here if you want specific ideas and detailed instructions about the preparation and submission of materials. This reference includes information about HTML editors and where to obtain such programs. If you wish to post an annoucement of a meeting, symposium, organization, or some other opportunity of interest to this user group, you may submit the item to the local SYSOP (SEE Questions about BIOLAB, below). Just be certain to include relevant date so expired items can be purged.
If you have any questions about materials posted, contributing materials, or general comments regarding the operation of BIOLAB, you may send an email message to the local SYSOP, J.E.(Joe) Armstrong by clicking on the email address: jearmstr@ilstu.edu if your WWWeb browser supports the MAILTO email function.
Unless otherwise indicated, materials are oriented to a college level. Many materials are adaptable to various levels. A twig key program listed under Science Lessons for Elementary Teaching can be used for ages 10-11 and up, so don't let directory categories overly limit your imagination and creativity.
BIOLAB has so many files, all fomerly part of an Internet BBS that required Telnet/FTP access (back in the dark ages of the Internet), and the transition is still in progress. Do contact me if you find the materials that you seek, or if a link does not work. Many materials for posting have not yet been converted to hypertext. In many cases, plain text version exist, and attempting to access these files will display instructions for browsing and downloading the plain text file. Error messages indicating "the file cannot be found" will still be encountered in some instances. Sorry for any disappointment.