Student demographic information was collected using items from the self-efficacy survey
described above during both Fall 2006 and Spring 2007 (Table 1). Students in the inquiry
and traditional labs shared similar demographics. They were primarily (~70%) Caucasian
female students in their first to second semester of college (67-74%) and approximately
15% were minority students. On average, students in Biology 1103 reported a 3.13 GPA
during Fall 2006 and 3.22 GPA during Spring 2007, and reported similar GPAs between both
inquiry and traditional lab sections. For the most part, these students had little previous
college science experience: 32-45% indicated this was their first college science course.
Biology 1103 lab was possibly the only laboratory course taken to fulfill a science
requirement for graduation from the university since most of these students do not intend
to pursue further study in science (only 20% indicated possible interest in a science career).