MATTER Magazine Spotlight: BIO 490 Collaborative Research

By Elle Cohen ‘26, Natalie Jebraili ‘25, and Anshi Mehra ‘26

BIO490 is an upper-level science research course that runs in the fall, open to uppers and seniors interested in chemistry and biology at Exeter. The course teaches students processes of scientific investigation through a team-based approach, where students collaborate to work on a cumulative research project, which they present at the end of the term. In past years, students have learned research methods, such as statistical analyses and project design, while working with the Wisconsin Fast Plant as a model organism for student-designed research projects.

Students chose to take the course for a number of reasons. For example, senior Eloise Benchley described that the class is great for active learners, such as herself, through the hands-on lab experiments students conducted.

Eloise Benchley 24’ also noted that the class was also helpful with the technicalities of lab write-up: “I learned a lot about scientific language, and being very careful with how to phrase things,” Benchley said. She hadn’t taken many biology classes, as she had been focused on chemistry and physics, but she thoroughly enjoyed the rigor of BIO490. 

Another student, Charlie Gao ‘24, reflected that he chose BIO490 because he wanted to better understand how scientific research is carried out: “I wanted to get that experience when it comes to conducting scientific research methods on certain labs and projects.”

As a part of the course, Gao and his classmates conducted an experiment on plants: “We watered plants using different chemicals [such as] zinc, and we saw the effect of these four different chemicals.” Gao comments that his class chose this experiment because they believed the experiment could “generate good data.”

The course also taught students a variety of statistical analysis methods, such as the student’s t-test and the chi-squared test. When asked what he learned in the course, he responded that his key takeaways involved understanding how to collect and interpret data: “I think the most important thing was using uncertainty and statistical analysis on lab data.”

Similarly, Benchley recounted how the first half of the term discussed the scientific method, research ethics, and using statistics in scientific research. Benchley reflected, “It was definitely a bit stagnant, but it taught us the tools that we used in our final project that occupied the second half of the term” and referred to the first half of the class as “a mini stats course and a mini bioethics course.”

For the second half of the class, Benchley continued to describe how the class of eight was divided into two research groups. They used Wisconsin Fast Plants and first spent time brainstorming and researching. Then they ordered materials for their experiment.

“My group decided to look at how different divalent ions affected plant health, using chlorophyll concentration as a proxy for the health” Benchley said. Her group used spectrophotometers, and although it was a complex experiment, “it was definitely really fun to have so much freedom.”

One difference between the experiment in this course and experiments in other courses was that this one was long-term. Benchley noted that during the second half of the term, “There were definitely some team dynamic issues… an uneven distribution of work, and some difficulty with scheduling.” She explained, “With research like this where you need consistency, the schedule controls you, not the other way around.” Benchley acted as a leader for her group, but reflects that next time even smaller groups would be more feasible.

Altogether, Gao enjoyed taking data and analyzing the experiment’s result as a scientist would. In Gao’s experience, the team had to consider methods of “decreasing uncertainty” in their results.

Looking back on the course, Gao commented that his favorite part of the project was “reorienting the experiment towards what we wanted” and practicing “problem-solving.”Gao took pride in creating a “good final product” and acknowledged that “scientific research is extremely difficult.”

Overall, students of the course recommended it to younger students interested in science. For example, Gao shared that it was “a strong course if you want to have an introduction to scientific research,” but adds that the course is “pretty difficult.”

Similarly, Benchley recommended younger students to take it if they are looking for creative liberty. “I would just warn younger students about the fact that this class is very end-heavy, so you need to be ready for lots of work around the time of college applications and finals,” Benchley concluded.