Optimizing a Windows-Based Computer Data Acquisition and Reduction System for the General Chemistry Laboratory

该项目的产品将是一个基于Windows的数据采集和简化系统，用于普通化学实验室，该系统以廉价的通用硬件和标准软件为基础。基于DOS的LIMSport系统已经在我们的实验室成功使用了多年，并通过为期七周的NSF/UFE夏季研讨会在全国范围内传播。大多数大学现在都在转向基于Windows的软件。这需要对LIMSport进行修订，但它也提供了一个实质性改进的机会。我们的系统是独一无二的，因为它增加了数据采集能力，最流行的电子表格（Excel和Lotus），使学生学习标准的，可转移的数据分析方法在实验室中，教师可以使用该系统作为一种创作语言来创建自己的实验，涉及直接数据采集。我们将为一些典型的普通化学实验准备电子表格模板，这些实验说明了使用现代电子表格中内置的强大图形和数值方法来揭示收集的实时数据趋势的方法。一个广泛的评估计划已经制定，以确定哪些计算机方法是最有效的促进学生在实验室学习。实验室手册将被写入新的Windows/Excel版本的LIMSport，其中包括我们的工作成果，以及由教育化学实验室的大量研究建议的功能。该手册将提供大约30个实验的背景信息，这些实验适用于普通化学，使用LIMSport的能力，利用少量相对无害的化学品。

The product of this project will be a Windows-based data acquisition and reduction system for general chemistry laboratories that is based on inexpensive, generic hardware and standard software. The DOS-based LIMSport system which it will succeed has been used for years in our laboratories with success, and has been disseminated nationwide by means of seven, week-long NSF/UFE Summer workshops. Most universities are now converting to Windows-based software. This necessitates a revision of LIMSport, but it also offers an opportunity for substantial improvement. Our system is unique in that it adds data acquisition capability to the most popular spreadsheets (Excel and Lotus), so that students learn standard, transferable methods of data analysis in the laboratory, and teachers can use the system as an authoring language to create their own experiments involving direct data acquisition. We will prepare spreadsheet templates for a number of typical general chemistry experiments which illustrate ways of using the powerful graphical and numerical methods built into modern spreadsheets to reveal trends in real-time data as they are collected. An extensive evaluation plan has been developed to determine which computer methods are most effective in promoting student learning in the laboratory. A laboratory manual will be written for the new Windows/Excel version of LIMSport which incorporates the results of our work as well as features suggested by the large body of research on educational chemistry laboratories. The manual will provide background information for about 30 experiments which are suitable for General Chemistry, using the capability of LIMSport to utilize small quantities of relatively innocuous chemicals.