We have integrated a research component into a first year biology course by adapting an existing traditional lab exercise so that it formed part of the data collection process for research being carried out in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sydney. In doing this we have capitalized on the component of the course which is usually a major stumbling block to running authentic lab activities, namely the size of the student cohort (Brew 2001).

The semester 1 first year course has 1000 students, who provide an ideal research team for carrying out a survey of airborne fungal spores in the Sydney Basin. Such an extensive survey has proved impossible as part of the existing research project into distribution of potential allergens  (Green et al 2006) because of the expense and time constraints in surveying such a large area.

One of the limitations of the procedure is that we have to use a relatively unsophisticated collection method (settling) as opposed to those methods normally used for such surveys.  This is a point which students need to discuss when reporting on their findings.

Students collect fungi in the air in their home suburb by exposing an agar plate for a set period of time.  Once the fungi collected have grown into colonies, students use a key to identify the fungi.  A class data set, with details of postcodes, fungi collected, and information about vegetation in the area, is constructed.

Since this was the first opportunity for students to work with microscopes and keys there was concern about the reliability of their identifications of the fungi.  A subset of the plates were re-examined by expert mycologists to determine the proportion of correct identifications, and to determine which fungi are most reliably recognised
Discussions with colleagues in the School of Geosciences resulted in our using ARC GIS to plot distributions of fungi, vegetation and samples across the Sydney Basin.  The resulting maps were then used in a lecture on interpreting data and reporting results. 

Students also had a series of discussion and feedback sessions on reports during subsequent lab classes.  These allowed them to use feedback on draft reports to improve their writing.  However, after two years of running this initiative, it appears there are still some mismatches in student outcomes and staff expectations.  A key component of running a novel experiment is the need to work with current literature on the topic.  This requires first year students to work with the primary scientific literature - something not previously required, and reflecting increased expectations of students coming straight from school.

Throughout the investigation we discuss with students the context in which they are carrying out their research project.  Since most students in the course are primarily interested in areas of biology related to medicine we have focused on issues associated with public health eg. prevalence of asthma in Sydney.  However since one of the developers of the initiative has been involved in surveys associated with the 'clean up' in New Orleans, after the flooding disaster, we have also incorporated this application into our discussions.  Next year we hope to have students talking to him online about his work and the uses for the data they are collecting.