Learning gains in lab practices: teach science doing science

Introducing research in undergraduate biology studies may contribute to creating research vocations and generate the idea that science may influence all aspects of common life. However, laboratory practices are too often disconnected from current investigations and rarely address real-life questions that are really interesting for students. Teachers may help to solve that problem by designing educational lab practices connected with real problems in order to stimulate learning gains and passion for science. We present here a lab practice on cellular biology based on the analysis of micronuclei in buccal cells as a measure of DNA damage. Methodologically easy and cheap, it may be an excellent opportunity to practice scientific methodology and to initiate students in the process of empirical research while they integrate fundamental knowledge.