We have continued and plan to expand the guided inquiry research component of our one semester Biochemistry Laboratory Course (BIOC463A). Since 2009, the second portion of the semester involved a Special Research Project. Initially our studies involved examination of the structural importance and roles of two disulfide bonds in alkaline phosphatase, a periplasmic enzyme from E. coli, using the chemical reducing agents beta-mercaptoethanol, dithiothreitol, and triscarboxyethylphosphine. These early studies included a variety of spectroscopic methods including activity assays, fluorescence spectroscopy, and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy.