Development & Assessment of a Multimedia Plant Science Laboratory

实验室软件模块，连接到静止的视频光盘， 运动和动画序列，将用于一个新的 本科植物科学实验室我们会把实验室 局域网中的计算机， 可以与其他团体（和教学）进行交流 助理），以开放式的工作，发人深省 在合作、协作的学习环境中进行练习 科学讨论和辩论。 我们进一步建议测试 新的和现有的模块和练习， 教学过程中发生的变化 采用这种新的教育技术。 15个多媒体实验室模块的核心已经通过 VPI学习研究中心和 生物学系。 这种核心材料缺乏自助性 教程，以指导学生通过其复杂的新格式， 它将传统的实验室演示目标转变为 理解因果关系和相互联系的能力。 我们 以生态学和进化论为主要主题来解读植物 建筑，生长，发育，繁殖， 分组。 在NSF的支持下，我们将开发自助教程， 15个核心单元的合作学习练习， 其中几个的替代方案，实施当地 网络，设计和实施评估工具， 分析我们的软件模块以及 这种新的教育技术所带来的教/学 到生命科学。

Laboratory software modules, linked to a videodisc of still, motion, and animation sequences, will be used in a new undergraduate plant science lab. We will link the laboratory computers in a local area network so that groups of students can communicate with other groups (and with the teaching assistant) in order to work on open-ended, thought-provoking exercises in a cooperative, collaborative learning environment of scientific discourse and debate. We further propose to test the new and existing modules and exercises to assess the changes in the teaching/learning process that occur upon adoption of this new educational technology. A core of 15 multimedia lab modules has been produced through collaboration of VPI Learning Research Center and the Department of Biology. This core material lacks self-help tutorials to guide students through its complex new format, which shifts the traditional lab goal of demonstration to one of understanding causal relations and interconnectedness. We use ecology and evolution as major themes to interpret plant construction, growth, and development, reproduction,and grouping. With NSF support we will develop the self-help tutorials and cooperative learning exercises for the 15 core modules, produce alternatives for several of them, implement the local area network, and design and implement assessment instruments to analyze our software modules and the changes in teaching/learning that this new educational technology brings to the life sciences.