Utah Tech University Professor Lets Lab Students take the Teaching Reins
By Kaylee Cluff
Utah Tech University Professor of Biology Curt Walker brings “active learning. active life.” center stage with his Comparative Vertebrate Physiology Lab which puts his students in control.
For the past five years, Dr. Walker has had his Comparative Vertebrae Physiology Lab students become instructors for the day having a student prepare a hands-on lab based on the course material each week.
“It is really up to the students to decide every time what we’re going to do and we’ve done some really cool stuff this semester,” Walker said. Dr. Walker’s main goal in having his students conduct their own labs is to apply the university’s “active learning. active life” motto.
“My goal is for students to illustrate the concepts that we talk about in the lecture but then actually going out and seeing the stuff for themselves.”
Last semester UT student Bryan Loya led the class’s Thursday lab by having his classmates start their morning by dunking their feet and face in ice-cold water to simulate the mammalian dive response.
Loya had his fellow classmates take their heart rates and oxygen levels while holding their breath out of the water as a control group and then had his classmates hold their breath while dunking their feet and face in the frigid water.
“Dr. Walker’s lab is the epitome of active learning. It is the most fun and hands-on lab I have ever had,” said Loya. “I enjoyed leading the class in this experiment, and I hope everyone had fun torturing each other with cold water!”
“My goal is for students to illustrate the concepts that we talk about in the lecture but then actually going out and seeing the stuff for themselves.”
