Implementing Microcomputer-Based Laboratory Exercises to Improve Instruction in Biology

该项目通过将探究式教学方法引入实验室，使生物课程现代化。通过购买科学和计算设备，该部门正在将计算机接口设备整合到其生物实验室中。这一过程使该系能够(1)通过引入包含计算数据获取和分析实践经验的探究式实验室向学生提供当前技术，(2)为学生提供与四年制学院和大学进行的类似的实验室体验，(3)提高进入劳动力大军的学生的技术素养，以及(4)为学生提供设计阐明理论的实验的机会。由于普通生物学、解剖学和生理学以及微生物学的课程改革，每年约有740名本科生能够设计实验和操纵变量，创造了观察理论与实践之间关系的机会。此外，他们正在学习由专业生物学家练习的生物学。这一过程正在帮助学生在转到四年制院校或进入劳动力大军时更成功地过渡。*

This project is modernizing the biology curriculum by introducing inquiry-based instructional methods into the laboratories. By purchasing scientific and computing equipment, the department is integrating computer-interfaced equipment into its biology laboratories. This process enables the department to (1) provide students with current technology by introducing inquiry-based labs that include practical experience in computational data acquisition and analysis, (2) provide students with similar laboratory experiences to those conducted at 4-year colleges and universities, (3) improve the technical literacy of students entering the workforce, and (4) provide students with opportunities to design experiments that illustrate theory. As a result of curriculum changes in general biology, anatomy and physiology, and microbiology, about 740 undergraduate students a year are able to design experiments and manipulate variables, creating an opportunity to observe the relationships between theory and practice. In addition, they are studying biology as practiced by professional biologists. This process is helping students to make the transition more successfully when they transfer to 4-year institutions or enter the workforce. *