Chad is musing about teaching a class based on classical experiments in physics:
The idea would be to have students pick one of the classic experiments in science from, say, before WWII, track down the original papers, and read them to work out how things were done (tracing back other references as needed). Then they would look into how the experiment could be updated using more modern technology, and what the pros and cons of the different versions are. Ideally, they would do some version of the experiment themselves, and write up the results as well.
However....
I have very little idea what would count as classic experiments in chemistry or biology, or how you would go about replicating them.
So, let's help Chad with biology experiments - classical experiments that students can do (so nothing requiring experimentation on vertebrates, for instance). What would those be? Think of different areas of biology: evolution, ecology, behavior, physiology, microbiology, botany....
Education & Careers
Life Science
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It should be fairly easy to duplicate Lazaro Spallanzani's 1767 series of experiments that proved that bacteria are born from other bacteria and are not spontaneously generated.
Posted by: chezjake | January 9, 2009 10:38 AM
Actually, that's fairly similar to a project I'm about to start for JoVE: video tape the best experiments for teaching. We're starting with our neurobiology course: 4 nice experiments using simple extracellular recordings in invertebrate animals.
Posted by: Bjoern Brembs | January 9, 2009 10:50 AM
If they have a lot of time on their hands, they can try Mendel's studies of genetic traits in pea plants. ;) But actually it might be feasible if it were updated to an organism with much shorter life cycle - not necessarily a plant either. Just need traits you can observe and a straightforward way to breed strains together.
Posted by: Shirley Wu | January 12, 2009 8:06 PM
Thomas Hunt Morgan's work with fruit flies would be replicable - and there's so much work continuing today with them that I'd imagine there would be plenty of research for them to do as far as "modernizing" it.
Besides, who doesn't like fruit flies?
Posted by: ehoffman | January 12, 2009 9:19 PM
How about Hammerling's experiments with Acetabularia. The cells are large and you just have to grow them and cut off the caps. I recently taught these experiments to a group of 9th graders and they appeared to understand them.
You do, however, need to factor in the cost of buying articles as these are still under journal copyright.
-RH
Posted by: Rosalyn Hunter | January 17, 2009 6:10 PM