About This Activity
This is a Spark Lab Research stream course and it is recommended students have a minimum overall average of 85%-90%. COURSE DESCRIPTION Are you curious about how scientific research truly begins? This course opens the door to the research process, revealing how scientists transform ideas into rigorous experiments and meaningful discoveries. Through engaging lectures and guided, hands-on lab activities, you will develop the core skills required to design a scientific study from the ground up. Learn to shape compelling research topics, craft meaningful scientific questions, define clear objectives, and build testable hypotheses supported by primary scientific literature. You will then apply these foundational skills to a focused biological theme: the molecular and physiological mechanisms of ammonia detoxification in the starlet sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis. Introductory laboratory experiments will demonstrate key experimental tools and showcase how researchers investigate these physiological processes. By the end of the course, you will have the groundwork needed to launch your own research projects and laid the foundation for future thesis work. ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR Alrishia Agard is currently pursuing an MSc in biology at York University. Her research focuses on invertebrate physiology, focusing on the physiological and molecular mechanisms of ammonia detoxification in the model organism Nematostella vectensis, the starlet sea anemone. As an MSc student in the biology department, Alrishia has considerable experience with molecular and physiological techniques, as well as teaching STEM activities and experiments to students of various ages. During her time as an undergraduate student in the Biomedical Science program at York University, Alrishia was an instructor for Science Engagement Programs, where she taught and developed courses for high school students. Alrishia is a teaching assistant for various undergraduate biology courses at York University.
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York University Keele Campus
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4700 Keele Street
Toronto, ON, Canada
M3J 1P3
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