Profile: Morthland Lab Connects Students, Science and Real World

One of the hottest new venues on campus buzzes with scientific inquiry seven days a week as students in the Virginia Morthland Teaching Laboratory learn to type their own DNA and evaluate the nutritional content of their favorite snacks from the campus food court.

The inviting, newly updated biology laboratory, sponsored by donors Dave and Ginny Morthland, serves both biology majors and non-biology majors in meeting science reqirements for graduate and allied health programs, as well as the general studies requirements of the University.

The Morthland Lab's design supports the scientific model used by today's researchers, enhancing a rigorous curriculum for future biologists, physicians, dentists, nurses and other health professionals. Inquiry-based science education mimics the kind of hypothesis generation and discovery processes at the heart of real science. As Professor Lisa Weasel explains, "the student is not just a passive receptacle of knowledge but takes initiative in designing experiments, posing questions, forming hypotheses and evaluating results."

Instead of the old-fashioned, long lab benches that isolated students from each other, the Morthland Lab's group work stations, equipped with computer and research technology, allow teams of students to work like modern investigators--conducting experiments, recording data, and debating procedure and results together.

Weasel, who is a biologist and a social scientist, sees the lab as a crucial opportunity to show students how biological science relates to everyday life. "Every student needs to understand something about how science is made, to demystify it," she says. "They're future consumers, patients and voters on issues that affect all of us. For some, this lab might be their last sustained contact with science. After graduation, visits to the doctor and television news are the extent of the scientific experience for most of us. It's important not to short-change these students."

Since opening in September 2003, the Morthland Lab's classes continue to fill quickly. The biology program offers twelve to fifteen sections of 25 students each term, at all hours of the day and on Saturdays and Sundays--even a 9 p.m. to midnight section. On Saturdays and Sundays, biology majors have sole use of the lab. Faculty guide students through experiments that don't rely on textbooks and are designed specifically for the lab's space and capabilities. Complex but practical exercises examine such questions as the effects of household chemicals on water and air; the fat, protein, carbohydrate, sugar and fiber content of common foods; and the always-popular DNA test. "The kit they students use for this includes a vial that they can wear later as a necklace or charm," Professor Weasel notes.

In addition to reaching hundreds of students per term, the Morthland's gift created a state-of-the-art recruiting tool for new faculty and promising students. PSU's biology faculty has dramatically increased funding and capacity for research, including collaborations with all of Oregon's major research universities, including Oregon Health & Science University. The Morthands saw the importance of up-to-date design in laboratories at Portland State and Dave, former president of the PSU Foundation and a retired vice president of Willamette Industries, saw this opportunity as a way to honor Ginny's research career at OHSU as a microbiologist concentrating in molecular biology and infectious diseases.

"We consider PSU to be as critical an asset to the economy of the city, the state and the northwest region as OHSU," Dave Morthland says. "It has demonstrated several areas of excellence that make it an institution of importance both nationally and globally. These areas of excellence are multifaceted, exemplified by increasing standards for academic achievement, attracting and keeping strong faculty who perform breakthrough research, and aiding and enhancing the city's and region's economy and quality of life. We feel that a mutually supportive and collaborative partnership between PSU and OHSU is critical to the long-term success of each institution.

Our gift was made with all of the above in mind, in order to help PSU have state-of-the-art facilities to meet the challenges of providing excellence in biology instruction for both majors, non-majors and post-graduate students--and of graduating outstanding pre-medical, pre-dental and biological scientists to meet the needs of the medical, dental and bioscience departments at OHSU, as well as the city's and region's other health care institutions and technical science and bioscience businesses.

We're gratified that the lab has so quickly become such a valuable and well-used resource for the biological science department's teaching and research faculty and its students, and that its presence has leveraged their ability to dramatically expand the funding of research grants."

For more information about biological sciences at Portland State, contact Pat Haugen, Director of Development, at (503) 725-5039 or haugenp@pdx.edu.