Computer-Aided Instruction in Biology

该奖项为印第安纳大学布卢明顿分校的生物系提供资金，以帮助将计算机辅助教学引入他们的课程，为他们的教学提供智力进步所需的物理环境。完成三个旨在提高本科生生物学教学效果的项目。这三个项目针对三个不同的层次：非专业的入门课程、专业的中级课程和专业的高级课程。在专业高级课程中，将计算机辅助数据采集与分析引入实验室。另外两个层次代表了对标准生物学教学方法的重大偏离。在任何科学课程的材料展示中，人们都必须以顺序的方式描述材料，先一个主题，然后下一个主题。教科书也受限于这种线性表示。然而，所讨论的材料是相互关联的，因此课程的早期和后期部分，实际上，课程是相互交织的。这是学生掌握联系的主要障碍；然而，正是这些联系帮助学生获得对科学知识体系的真正理解。为了帮助学生看到这些联系，生物系将在他们的课程中引入一个计算机实验室，学生将可以访问在麦金塔Hypercard的超文本环境中构建的非顺序链接信息库。使用该系统将为学生提供探索各种讲座和实验主题之间关系的设施，并通过阐明这些联系。人们相信，这将克服理解生物材料的一个主要困难。受资助机构将从非联邦来源获得相应的NSF奖励。

This award provides funds to the Department of Biology at Indiana University, Bloomington to help introduce computer-aided instruction into their curriculum which should provide the physical setting required for an intellectual advance in their teaching. Three projects will be completed which are aimed at increasing the effectiveness of teaching biology to undergraduates. These three projects are aimed at three different levels: introductory courses for non-majors, intermediate level courses for majors, and advanced courses for majors. In the advanced courses for majors, computer-aided data acquisition and analysis will be introduced into the laboratory. The other two levels represent a significant departure from the standard methods for biology teaching. In the presentation of material any science course, one is constrained to describe the material in a sequential manner, first one topic, then the next. Textbooks are also constrained to this linear presentation. However, the material that is discussed is interrelated, such that earlier and later portions of the course, and indeed, of the curriculum, are interwoven. It is a major hurdle for students to grasp the connections; yet, it is these connections which help students gain a real understanding of the body of scientific knowledge. In order to help students see these connections, the biology department will introduce into their courses a computer lab, in which students will have access to a non-sequentially linked information base constructed in the hypertext environment of Hypercard for the Macintosh. Access to this system will provide students with the facility to explore the relationships of various lecture and laboratory topics, and there by illuminate the connections. It is believed that this will surmount one of the major difficulties in understanding biological material. The grantee institution is matching this NSF award with funds from non-Federal sources.