Microcomputer Laboratory for Undergraduate Teaching in Biology

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This award provides funds to the Department of Biological Sciences at Florida State University to help purchase equipment for the establishment of a computer laboratory which will teach undergraduates quantitative analyses and computer literacy skills. The integration of quantitative exercises using these computers in undergraduate courses is a major goal of this project. Three preliminary computer exercises have been developed that integrate quantitative analyses with biological phenomena. These exercises focus on the global problem of biodiversity and then use the quantitative skills from that exercise to examine problems in relative growth and the size and shape of animals. These exercises will be expanded and additional exercises will be developed. The new laboratory will serve more than 1000 undergraduate biology majors as well as the more than 100 students in the new interdisciplinary major in Secondary/Science/Mathematics teaching. Faculty in the department believe that computers should be a tool used for the acquisition of basic knowledge in undergraduate biology in the same way that they are used to acquire new knowledge in research. The new laboratory and exercises will move toward this goal. The department will provide complete maintenance thorough its two electrical engineers, and supervision and installation will be provided by a full-time computer specialist assigned to this laboratory. The grantee is matching this award with non-Federal sources.