Integrating the Electronic Desktop into the Natural Science and Mathematics Curriculum

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Sciences CurriculumThis project's strategy is to develop curricula and a non-traditional approach to teaching and learning of science/math for students who are: science and math majors, education majors, and general education students. The goals are to increase retention of majors, prepare capable teachers and increase the scientific and technical literacy of citizens. Courses will be offered in a highly visual, user- friendly, computer-based learning environment CSLA's NeXT computer lab of 25 color workstations. Language barriers for the highly diverse , multi-ethnic population of CSLA are less of a problem in an interactive environment utilizing side-by- side pictures, animations, videos, sounds, graphs, words and numbers. Also, techniques, concepts and demonstrations which are too expensive, dangerous or which do not lend themselves to traditional modes of instruction are taught. Faculty from Biology, Chemistry, Geology and Physics will modify introductory courses including Science Orientation, Intro Biology, Intro Chemistry, Quantitative Analysis, Environmental Geology, General Physics, and Astronomy. These curricular changes will involve 100 math, science and engineering undergraduate majors, 100 education majors, and 150 general education students annually. This project also seeks to inspire and instruct other faculty about the intuitive, appealing and quickly mastered electronic desktop techniques. Evaluation will be by external review and through comparison of student performance using traditional versus electronic desktop techniques. Results will be disseminated through publication, professional presentations, and regional workshops.