Eventually I was able to take more classes in my major, and although most were regular lecture classes, I was also able to take classes that were more lab focused. After taking a few of these lab classes, I began to see a pattern: I consistently did better in the lab classes than lecture classes. I always thought of myself as someone who was good at memorization and finding connections between concepts, which is useful in most of the lecture classes I have taken. Through these lab classes, I learned that I may be more of a hands-on learner than i previously thought. This realization helped me shape my study habits for future classes.
My Biol 463 lab, Advanced Animal Physiology, was where it all seemed to click. At the same time as I was taking this lab, I was also taking Biol 462 lecture, Advanced Animal Physiology. Because these classes were based on the same material, it was easy for me to see how the laboratory (hands-on) aspect contributed to my learning. In the laboratory class, we took the information we learned in lecture to develop an experiment from start to finish, using invertebrates as research subjects. Planning the experiment, carrying it out, and synthesizing it in a research paper required attention to detail and an integration of all of the information we had learned in lecture. It was extremely useful to be able to see the the experiment unfold first-hand and to be able to adapt in real-time based on the data. Although I had previous research experience in a lab on campus, this class gave me the confidence in my ability to succeed in more hands-on types of activities.
