Integrating the Electronic Desktop into the Natural Science Curriculum

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This project's strategy is to use the power of advanced workstation technology to improve the way science is taught and learned in a multicultural university. Project activities will have four faculty persons from biology, chemistry and the earth sciences collaborating to develop three new interdisciplinary courses, write 29 interactive science visualization courseware applications, revise instructional delivery, prepare a variety of instructional materials that can be used at other institutions, integrate Internet resources into the classroom, and create a new class of instructional applications that can be executed remotely over the Internet using the World-Wide-Web protocol. This project will annually involve about 200 students who are science majors and 500 general education students. The goals are to increase retention of majors and the scientific literacy of non-majors. Courses will be offered in a highly visual, user-friendly, computer-based learning environment that is interactive, powerful and intuitive. Language barriers are less of a problem in an interactive environment utilizing pictures, animations, sounds, graphs, words and numbers where science can be seen, heard and explored. More fully engaging students in thinking and problem solving will allow them to learn better. Also, techniques, concepts and demonstrations which are too expensive, dangerous or do not lend themselves to traditional modes of instruction can be taught despite pedagogical obstacles. Project results will be disseminated through publication, professional presentations, and be made available nationally over the Internet.