Development & Assessment of a Multimedia Plant Science Laboratory

实验室软件模块与静止、运动和动画序列的视频光盘相连接，将在一个新的本科植物科学实验室中使用。我们将把实验室的计算机连接到局域网中，这样学生小组就可以与其他小组（以及助教）进行交流，以便在科学论述和辩论的合作学习环境中进行开放式、发人深省的练习。我们进一步建议测试新的和现有的模块和练习，以评估采用这种新的教育技术后教/学过程的变化。通过VPI学习研究中心和生物系的合作，制作了15个多媒体实验模块的核心。这种核心材料缺乏自助教程来引导学生通过其复杂的新格式，这将传统的实验室目标的演示转变为理解因果关系和相互联系。我们用生态学和进化作为主要主题来解释植物的构造、生长、发育、繁殖和分组。在国家科学基金会的支持下，我们将为15个核心模块开发自助教程和合作学习练习，为其中几个模块制作替代方案，实施局域网，并设计和实施评估工具来分析我们的软件模块以及这种新的教育技术给生命科学带来的教/学变化。

Laboratory software modules, linked to a videodisc of still, motion, and animation sequences, will be used in a new undergraduate plant science lab. We will link the laboratory computers in a local area network so that groups of students can communicate with other groups (and with the teaching assistant) in order to work on open-ended, thought-provoking exercises in a cooperative, collaborative learning environment of scientific discourse and debate. We further propose to test the new and existing modules and exercises to assess the changes in the teaching/learning process that occur upon adoption of this new educational technology. A core of 15 multimedia lab modules has been produced through collaboration of VPI Learning Research Center and the Department of Biology. This core material lacks self-help tutorials to guide students through its complex new format, which shifts the traditional lab goal of demonstration to one of understanding causal relations and interconnectedness. We use ecology and evolution as major themes to interpret plant construction, growth, and development, reproduction,and grouping. With NSF support we will develop the self-help tutorials and cooperative learning exercises for the 15 core modules, produce alternatives for several of them, implement the local area network, and design and implement assessment instruments to analyze our software modules and the changes in teaching/learning that this new educational technology brings to the life sciences.