Development of Investigative Interactive Laboratories for Introductory Science Courses

该项目的目标是开发一种将吸引更多女性参加科学课程的教学方法。该项目开发了生物和化学导论方面的创新补充课程，在讲解部分营造了新的氛围，并设立了实验室部分，旨在促进科学的研究性质。入门课程的变化包括：(1)建立了生物和化学通用的教育模式，允许课程之间有相当大的交叉引用。(2)发展开放式实验室体验，鼓励一小群学生确定选定问题的参数，并在最少的教员指导下，自己设计和运行重要的实验。(3)开发计算机模拟来补充湿实验练习，这将允许学生以不具威胁性和较少耗时的方式进行初步探索的更大自由。

The objective of this project is to develop a method of teaching that will attract more women to science courses. The project develops innovative complementary courses in introductory biology and chemistry with a new atmosphere in the expository portion and with a laboratory component designed to promote the investigative nature of science. The introductory course changes include: (1) The establishment of a mode of education common to both biology and chemistry, allowing considerable cross-referencing between the courses. (2) The development of open-ended laboratory experiences which will encourage small groups of students to determine the parameters of selected questions and, with minimal faculty direction, to design and run significant experiments themselves. (3) The development of computer simulations that complement the wet laboratory exercises which will allow greater freedom of preliminary exploration by students in a non-threatening and less time-consuming way.