Implementation of Investigative Laboratories for Undergraduate Women: A Model for Introductory Biology

该项目增加了设备，以支持科学专业的重组普通生物学课程。 在过去的两年中，生物系已经成功地修订了两个学期的普通生物学课程，重点围绕主题，少讲课密集，并强调学生主导的研究项目。 招生人数从平均每学期54人增加到80人，生物专业的留存率有所提高。 虽然经验，调查，动手的科学方法的发展是成功的，实验室没有足够的设备来支持已经融入课程结构的学期研究项目。 该项目创建了六个工作站，供20名学生的每个实验室部分使用。 每个工作站由三到四名学生组成的小组使用。 每个小组都配备了一个pH计，一个分光光度计，一个双照明立体显微镜，一个顶部加载平衡，和一个Macintosh Power PC。 此外，一个新的孵化器和两个生长室可供所有项目团队使用，在不使用时，可供其他生物学专业进行研究项目。

This project adds equipment to support a restructured General Biology course for science majors. Over the past two years, the Biology Department has successfully revised the two-semester General Biology course to focus around themes, to be less lecture intensive, and to emphasize student-directed research projects. Enrollment has increased from an average of 54 students per semester to 80, and the retention rate of biology majors has increased. While development of an experiential, investigative, hands-on approach to science has been successful, labs had insufficient equipment to support the semester-long research projects that had been integrated into the course structure. This project creates six workstations for use by each of the lab sections of 20 students. Each workstation is used by teams of three to four students. Each team is provided with a Ph meter, a spectrophotometer, stereo microscopes with dual illumination, a top loader balance, and a Macintosh Power PC. In addition, a new incubator and two growth chambers are available to all project teams and, when not in use, to other biology majors conducting research projects.