The Integration of Computer-Linked Data Acquisition and Analysis Systems into Undergraduate Cell Biology and Physiology Laboratories

在教授细胞生物学和生理学等实验性学科方面的一个主要问题是，学生们把大部分指定的实验时间花在“食谱”实验上，几乎没有时间通过独立工作来了解科学的过程。该项目通过引入计算机连接的数据采集和分析系统来解决这个问题，这些系统将用于开始和高级细胞生物学课程和植物生理学课程的一些新实验。新实验的重点是研究光合作用和呼吸作用的结构/功能关系。这些新系统使学生能够更有效地收集和分析数据，从而使学生有时间制定和测试自己的假设作为实验室经验的正常部分。学生也被鼓励进行独立的研究项目。 具体而言，两个实验室各配备了六个计算机站。在最初的实验室中，接口将计算机与传感器连接起来，这些传感器旨在测量空气中的pH值、压力和氧气水平，以研究生物体水平的光合作用和呼吸作用。在先进的实验室中，计算机控制的液相氧电极系统与附加的荧光探针和高强度光源允许一种新的方法来研究叶绿体和线粒体功能。这些系统的计算机增强的数据收集能力允许在教学实验室中进行实验，这是用旧方法不可能完成的。这些方法应该是感兴趣的教育工作者致力于新的教学方法的科学方法和结构/功能关系的光合作用和呼吸。 这一项目的成果可以通过在美国植物生理学家协会教学部门的介绍和出版材料，包括在教育期刊上发表文章和细胞生物学实验室手册来传播。

A major problem in teaching experimentally based disciplines such as cell biology and physiology is that the students spend most of the assigned laboratory period working on `cookbook` experiments, with little time left to learn about the process of science through independent work. This project addresses the problem by introducing computer-linked data acquisition and analyses systems to be used in a number of new experiments in the beginning and the advanced cell biology courses and the plant physiology course. The new experiments focus on studying structure/function relationships in photosynthesis and respiration. These new systems empower students to gather and analyze data more efficiently, thus allowing students the time to formulate and test their own hypotheses as a normal part of the laboratory experience. Students are also encouraged to undertake independent research projects. Specifically, two laboratories are being equipped with six computer stations each. In the beginning labs, interfaces link computers to sensors designed to measure pH, pressure, and oxygen levels in the air for the study of photosynthesis and respiration at the organismal level. In the advanced labs, computer-controlled liquid phase oxygen electrode systems with attached fluorescence probes and high-intensity light sources allow for a novel approach to the study of chloroplast and mitochondrial function. The computer-enhanced data gathering capability of these systems permits experiments to be done in a teaching laboratory that would have been impossible to accomplish with older methods. These methods should be of interest to educators committed to new approaches of teaching about the scientific method and about structure/function relationships in photosynthesis and respiration. The results of this project can be disseminated through presentations in the teaching section of the American Society of Plant Physiologists and through publication of materials, including articles in educational journals and a cell biology laboratory manual.