A Visual Introduction to Laboratory Studies

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As a result of a recent University-wide curriculum initiative, all Millikin students are required to complete at least one science course that interweaves experiential, reflective and theoretical elements. Faculty are developing a set of introductory, special-topics courses to meet this need. The goal is to develop focused courses that will allow students to experience the excitement of an in-depth study while simultaneously placing the study in the broader context of overarching principles of scientific inquiry. Each course will focus on a particular area of inquiry, such as molecular structure, stars, or prairie ecology. A set of common or shared laboratory exercises are being developed by the professors of the various sections; each exercise will present an interesting question from the contributing professors discipline while introducing a fundamental method of inquiry or principle that transcends disciplinary boundaries. Ultimately, each instructor will select a series of experiments from a range of disciplines to create a laboratory experience that supports her/his special topics course. While the goal is for each course to stand alone in relating the unique characteristics of a specific field of study to the common features of the scientists' way of knowing, students taking several courses will gain a special perspective. Notably, this will be the case for the twenty percent of Millikin students who become elementary or secondary teachers since certification requirements will be fulfilled by taking three of the courses. A team of faculty have identified ten overarching processes that will be covered in laboratory exercises to be shared by all of the courses. This project provides equipment that will support a three-week laboratory module designed to introduce two of the ten foundational processes. These are: The use of instrumentation to make observations that both extend and improve the accuracy and precision of one or more of the human senses; and The use of graphs and mathematical ex pressions to organize and simplify data, ideas, and concepts. These two principles will be introduced through a series of exercises that have students consider what they can say about objects on the basis of their color and then reconsider after evaluating with visible transmission and reflectance spectra, visible fluorescence spectra and infrared spectra.