Name | Let's Experiment : A Guide for Scientists Working at the Bench |
Enrollment Starts | Anytime, self-paced |
Course Starts | Anytime, self-paced |
Estimated Effort | 03:00 hours/week |
Before you step into the lab to do an experiment, you have a long list of questions: How do I design an experiment that will give a clear answer to my question? What model system should I use? What are my controls? What’s an ideal sample size? How can I tell if the experiment worked?
It is overwhelming and easy to feel lost, especially with no guide in sight.
This FREE course tackles the above questions head-on. Scientists from a variety of backgrounds give concrete steps and advice to help you build a framework for how to design experiments in biological research. We use case studies to make the abstract more tangible. In science, there is often no simple right answer. However, with this course, you can develop a general approach to experimental design and understand what you are getting into before you begin. (If you are interested in using content from this course for your own trainees, please click here for more information.)
We will guide you through the steps of planning a well-designed experiment, so by the end of this course, you will have:
For students and practitioners of experimental biology
We designed this course for graduate students participating in experimental biological research. Advanced undergraduate students may also find this course very helpful, as well as postdocs and staff scientists looking for guidance on these topics.
Includes 5 comprehensive modules and 1 experimental plan
Built with your schedule in mind
We know you have lots of things to do, so you can take this course as quickly or as slowly as works for you. There are 5 modules in the course and each take about 1.5 to 3 hours of work. There are an average of 7 videos per module; each video is 2 to 6 minutes in length.
This is not a statistics course
We introduce you to some basic statistics concepts that are relevant to the experimental design concepts we teach. However, we don’t dive deeper than that. If you want to learn more, we provide you with some links to outside resources to help get you started.
Without further ado, let’s experiment!
There are no requirements necessary to take this class.
"Let’s Experiment" is the second course in the “How to Do Good Science” series from iBiology Courses. If you haven’t yet, we recommend that you take the first course in this series, called "Planning Your Scientific Journey." It teaches you how to ask scientific questions and build a research plan. "Planning Your Scientific Journey" is self-paced and can be taken any time (before, during, or after the running of this course).
Let's Experiment is an on-demand, self-paced course. This means that, as soon as you enroll, all course content is available to you and may be consumed at your own pace. For your reference, it took students 6 weeks to complete the whole course in a hosted, synchronized format. They spent on average 1.5-3 hours on the course per week. This includes time spent watching videos, reading text, doing assessments, and engaging in the forum. You will receive an iBiology Courses Certificate of Completion if you pass the course. Passing requires that you complete 50% or more of the learning exercises.
We've interviewed leaders in the scientific community about doing good science, and we present those interviews to you in this course. Speakers include:
Special thanks to those who volunteered their time to review the beta version of this course: Adriana Bankston, Leah Bury, Kara Cerveny, Angela DePace, Irene Gallego-Romero, Brooke Gardner, Samantha Hindle, Doug Koshland, Gary McDowell, Steve Mennerick, and Kassandra Ori-McKinney. You all gave such great feedback!
Mónica Feliú-Mójer, Rosa Veguilla, Karen Dell, David Quigley, Jóse Dinneny