A Visual Introduction to Laboratory Studies

由于最近的大学范围内的课程倡议的结果，所有米利学生都必须完成至少一门科学课程，交织的经验，反思和理论元素。教师正在开发一套介绍性的，专题课程，以满足这一需求。我们的目标是开发重点课程，让学生体验深入研究的兴奋，同时将研究置于科学探究的总体原则的更广泛背景下。每门课程都将侧重于一个特定的研究领域，如分子结构，恒星或草原生态学。各科教授正在制定一套共同或共享的实验练习;每个练习将提出一个有趣的问题，同时介绍一种超越学科界限的基本探究方法或原则。最终，每位讲师将从一系列学科中选择一系列实验，以创建支持她/他的特殊主题课程的实验室体验。虽然目标是让每门课程都能独立地将特定研究领域的独特特征与科学家的认知方式的共同特征联系起来，但参加多门课程的学生将获得一个特殊的视角。值得注意的是，这将是米利学生谁成为小学或中学教师，因为认证要求将通过采取三门课程完成百分之二十的情况。一个教师团队已经确定了十个总体过程，这些过程将在所有课程的实验练习中进行。该项目提供的设备将支持一个为期三周的实验室模块，旨在介绍十个基本过程中的两个。这些是：使用仪器进行观察，扩展和提高一种或多种人类感官的准确性和精确性;使用图表和数学实验来组织和简化数据，思想和概念。这两个原则将通过一系列练习来介绍，让学生考虑他们可以根据颜色对物体说些什么，然后在用可见光透射和反射光谱、可见光荧光光谱和红外光谱进行评估后重新考虑。

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.