Interdisciplinary Computer Graphics Laboratory

这项建议是为了建立一个跨学科的计算机图形实验室，供一所小型大学（南罗斯州立大学）面向实地的地球科学系使用。我们试图在我们的小机构解决的问题是在地球科学学生的教育缺乏部门间的合作。我们的目标是建立一个计算机实验室，这将是我们跨学科教学的焦点。它将提高我们整合校园地质学，生物学和自然资源管理等不同地球科学的能力，并创建一个“功能”更大的地球科学系，而不是较小的个别部门。该项目的主要预期成果将是开设一门新的多学科课程。这门课程将是一个学期的实验，要求学生从一个小的领域“获取，分析和呈现”数据。学生将收集不同的地质/生物数据在外地，将其整合到一个GIS数据库（与教师的帮助），分析数据，以回答有关地质和生物数据之间的相互关系的具体问题，并在一个开放的论坛海报演示的形式呈现结果。学生将在大二的水平上学习这门课程（先决条件是其中一个学科的入门课程）。第二个重要的成果是能够将实验室融入学生本科生涯后期的其他高级课程。我们认为，这是充分利用像我们这样的小机构提供的教育机会的创造性手段。

This proposal is for the creation of an interdisciplinary computer graphics laboratory for use by the field-oriented earth science departments at a small university (Sul Ross State University). The problem that we are trying to address at our small institution is the lack of interdepartmental cooperation in the education of earth science students. Our objective is to develop a computer laboratory that would be the focal point of our interdisciplinary teaching. It would enhance our ability to integrate the different earth sciences on campus-Geology, Biology, and Natural Resource Management, and create a "functionally' larger earth science department as opposed to the smaller individual departments. The primary expected outcome of the project would be to create a new multi-disciplinary course. This course would be a semester long experiment which would require students to "acquire, analyze, and present" data from a small field area. The students would collect diverse geologic/biologic data in the field, integrate it into a GIS database (with faculty help), analyze the data to answer specific questions regarding the interrelationships between the geologic and biologic data, and present the results in the form of an open forum poster presentation. The students would take this course at the sophomore level (the prerequisites would be an introductory course in one of the disciplines). A second significant outcome would then be the ability to integrate the laboratory into other advanced courses later in the students undergraduate career. We feel that this is a creative means of taking full advantage of the educational opportunities available at a small institution such as ours.