Creating Linkages through Institution-wide Reform of the Science Curriculum

密立金大学将从事一个为期三年的课程开发项目，由生物，化学，物理和数学系的教师广泛参与，继续我们的努力，将上述学科联系起来。 我们将开发一套入门科学课程，其中： * 将科学与其他学科联系起来 * 将科学相互联系起来; * 将我们的学生和课程与周围社区联系起来。 这些目标是从我们在米利遇到的挑战。 一个挑战是，本科生往往不善于辨别跨学科界限的基本原则的适用性。 米利金已经做了很多工作，使科学在我们的大学社区。 然而，这项任务是巨大的，具有挑战性的，因为传统的科学课程的趋势，掩盖了所有科学学科共享的共同方法和目的。 因此，仍有许多工作要做。 这种专业化的趋势也倾向于将学生从解决重要的社区问题和问题中孤立出来，这些问题将从米利学生和教师的密切关注和帮助中受益。 我们的社区需要与大学建立更强有力的伙伴关系。 我们致力于开发一套科学入门课程，让学生学习特定学科，探索对所有科学都很重要的基本探究方法和原则，并了解这些方法和原则如何与所选领域以及其他科学学科相关。 每个课程部分将集中在一个特定的调查领域，如恒星或草原生态学。 一套共同的实验室练习将由参与教学的教师开发每个正在提供的各个部分;每个练习将提出一个有趣的问题，从贡献教授的学科，但将探索调查的基本方法或重要的原则，以所有科学领域。 学生完成每个练习后，将在每个部分的背景下探索探究的图解原理或方法。 学生们还将开发练习，目前在K到12年级的当地学校的孩子。 计划中的改革是在密立金大学全机构规划的一个组成部分。 它得到了教职员工和行政部门的广泛支持。 它将建立在教师和管理人员的先前活动的基础上，这些活动自然地朝着这个方向发展。 主要研究者Mauri Ditzler博士在NSF的支持下，于20世纪90年代初在圣十字学院领导了“发现化学”课程的开发。 米利金系主任完全支持这一努力。 物理系主任正在根据NSF ILI奖（“基本常数-现代物理实验室，9552171”）及时开发实验室模块。 生物学，化学和物理学的椅子目前正在NSF的支持下工作，在“通过共同的实验室经验整合科学，”（9555029）。 米利金成功地筹集资金，用于新的科学大楼，将容纳本科实验室设施，旨在纳入这些教学和学习方法。 米利金还进行了本科生暑期研究计划。

Millikin University will engage in a three-year curriculum development project with extensive participation by faculty from the departments of biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics to continue our efforts to link the above disciplines. We will develop a set of introductory science courses which: * Link the sciences to the rest of academe * Link the sciences with each other; and * Link our students and the courses with the surrounding community. These goals have arisen from challenges we have encountered at Millikin. One challenge is that undergraduates are often not skilled in discerning the applicability of fundamental principles across disciplinary boundaries. Millikin has already done much work to bring the sciences together within our university community. However, this task is large and challenging as a consequence of the tendency in traditional science courses to mask the common methods and purpose shared by all science disciplines. Hence, much remains to be done. This tendency towards specialization has also tended to isolate students from addressing important community problems and issues that would benefit from closer attention and assistance from the Millikin students and faculty. Our community needs a stronger partnership with the University. We are engaged in developing a set of introductory science courses which allow students to study a specific discipline, to explore fundamental methods of inquiry and principles important to all sciences, and to learn how these methods and principles are relevant to both the chosen field and also to the other science disciplines. Each course section will focus on a particular area of inquiry, such as stars or prairie ecology. A set of common laboratory exercises will be developed by the faculty involved in teaching each of the various sections being offered; each exercise will present an interesting question drawn from the contributing professor's discipline yet will explore a fundamental method of inquiry or principle important to all fields of science. After the students complete each exercise, the illustrated principle or method of inquiry will be explored in the context of each section. Students will also develop exercises to present to local school children in grades K to 12. The planned reform is an integral part of institution-wide planning at Millikin University. It has the broad support of the faculty and the administration. It will build on prior activities of the faculty and administration that lead naturally in this direction. The principal investigator, Dr. Mauri Ditzler, lead the development of the "Discovery Chemistry" curriculum at the College of the Holy Cross in the early 1990s, with support from the NSF. The Millikin department chairs are wholly supportive of this effort. The chair of the Physics department is developing just in time laboratory modules under an NSF ILI award ("Fundamental Constants - Modern Physics Laboratory, 9552171). The chairs of biology, chemistry, and physics are currently working under NSF support in "Integrating the Sciences through Common Laboratory Experiences," (9555029). Millikin is successfully raising funds for a new science building that will house undergraduate laboratory facilities designed to incorporate these methods of instruction and learning. Millikin also conducts a summer research program for undergraduate students.