The Interactive Electronic Blackboard for Natural Science and Math Education

该项目的目的是通过一个高度可视化的、用户友好的、交互式的、强大的、直观的基于计算机的学习环境，大幅提高自然科学和数学学生的保留率，特别是那些学术准备差和英语语言不足的学生。一个由25个NeXT学生站组成的电子教室正被用于发展这种视觉和直观方法的综合计划。CSLA教师已经创建了特定学科的课件，并使用了可用的商业应用程序。每个学生的工作站都是一个互动的电子黑板，让学生可以看到、听到和探索科学和数学，从而充分调动感官参与学习。来自5个目标学科的8名教师已经花了2年时间为NeXT开发课程材料和设计课件。在这个项目中，团队每年在拟议的实验室教授大约10门课程，涉及150多名自然科学和数学本科生和100多名通识教育学生。正在开发四门新的跨学科课程：科学中的数学应用、科学家的电子表格、科学信息的可视化显示和作为科学研究工具的电子网络。现有课程有：生物识别学、生物建模、种群遗传学、概论。化学。物理化学。、物理地质学、计算机辅助制图、微积分、计算机图形学、面向对象程序设计、广义相对论、理论物理和天文学。项目成果正在地区和全国范围内传播，利用教师在全州范围内举办NeXT课件开发教师研讨会的经验。受助人将从非联邦来源获得相应的奖励。

This project's purpose is to substantially increase retention of natural science and math students, especially those with poor academic preparation and English language deficiencies, through a highly visual, user friendly computer-based learning environment that is interactive, powerful and intuitive. An electronic classroom of 25 NeXT student stations is being used in a comprehensive plan for developing this visual and intuitive approach. Discipline specific courseware already created by CSLA faculty along with available commercial applications is being used. Each student's station serves as an interactive electronic blackboard so that science and math can be seen, heard, and explored, thus fully engaging the senses in learning. Eight faculty from 5 target disciplines have already spent 2 years developing curricular materials and designing courseware for the NeXT. In this project the team teaches approximately 10 courses in the proposed lab involving more than 150 natural science and math undergraduates and 100 general education students annually. Four new interdisciplinary courses are being developed: Using Mathmatica in Science, Spreadsheets for Scientists, Visual Display of Scientific Information, and Electronic Networking as a Tool in Scientific Research. Targeted existing courses are: Biometrics, Biological Modelling, Population Genetics, Intro. Chem., Physical Chem., Physical Geology, Computer Aided Map Making, Calculus, Computer Graphics, Object Oriented Programming, General Relativity, and Theoretical Physics and Astronomy. Project results are being disseminated regionally and nationally, taking advantage of faculty experience in running statewide faculty workshops on NeXT courseware development.The grantee is matching this award from non-Federal sources.