Computers for Undergraduate Ecology and Population Biology Laboratories

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The Department of Biology is making IBM-compatible microcomputers available to its students at all levels of the Ecology curriculum. The inadequate computer hardware and software within the department previously available for student use is being augmented by laptop microcomputers to collect and analysis data both in the field and in the laboratory; external hard drives to provide storage space for data; professional-level statistical software packages; dot-matrix printers; a plotter; and a video projection system. The courses in which computers are having the greatest immediate impact are "Computers in Biology" and "Ecology", both of which are intermediate-level courses, and "Population Biology", an advanced-level seminar course that includes an independent research project. Other courses that benefit from the equipment include "Introductory Biology", "Limnology", and advanced-level research oriented courses. The computer expertise developing in the department, together with a strong university commitment to computing, justify the development of a biology curriculum in which computers play an important role. The grantee institution is matching the NSF award with an equal sum obtained from non-Federal sources.