Equipment to Interface Modern Technology with Critical Thinking in the Genetics Laboratory

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The Department of Biology of Indiana University of Pennsylvania is implementing reforms to create a cohesive, student-centered natural sciences learning community; a new curriculum for Biology majors, stressing hands-on, experiential learning and providing progressively greater opportunities for semi-independent student research. Three components are being introduced into the Genetics course, a course required for students preparing to be biology teachers and the capstone course of the new curriculum: (1) a distributive computing environment for the course to enable utilization of genetic analysis programs available on the Internet; (2) a set of new experiments emphasizing modern molecular genetics and providing opportunities for discovery and for synthesis; and (3) addition of a required student research project to the laboratory segment of the course. The equipment is also being used in Saturday workshops for in-service teachers and in a set of traveling workstations. Preservice biology teachers are assisting with the workshops and are being given the opportunity to utilize the workstations during their student teaching.