Teaching Undergraduates the Dynamics of Biology through Computer Assisted Image Analysis

由于种种原因，生物学科的本科生对生物有机体及其过程的动态性还不是很了解。变化和运动是生物正常的、重要的特征，这一点很难通过书籍、幻灯片、保存的标本和照片中的静态图像来教授。能够捕获和数字化图像的计算机的发展为以一种全新的方式教授生物学的动态方面提供了机会。通过这个项目，该大学创建了10个基于显微镜/Macintosh计算机的图像分析工作站，使学生能够在生物系的课程中捕获和分析生物动力学的图像。工作站正在成为植物发育、动物发育、实验原生动物学和普通微生物学等课程实验室工作的重要中心工具。这些仪器使学生能够独立地研究植物和动物的发育问题，以及微生物在各种刺激下的运动。学生能够以新的方式想象和理解生物现象。图像分析设备使他们能够根据观察提出重要的生物学问题，并学习如何使用定量方法来回答问题。这种新能力的影响预计将超越这些课程扩展到课程的其他领域，因为视频和计算机文件传送动态的、三维的和发展的生活过程的表现被创建并用于教学。

For various reasons, the dynamic nature of living organisms and processes is not well understood by undergraduate college students in biology. That change and movement are the normal, vital character of living things is not easily taught using static images in books, slides, preserved specimens, and photographs. The development of computers that can capture and digitize images presents an opportunity to teach the dynamic aspects of biology in a fundamentally new way. Through this project, the university creates 10 microscope/Macintosh computer-based image analysis workstations that make it possible for students to capture and analyze images of biological dynamics in courses in the Department of Biology. The workstations are becoming important central tools in the laboratory work of courses in plant development, animal development, experimental protozoology, and general microbiology. These instruments enable students independently to investigate problems of plant and animal development as well as movement of micro-organisms in response to various stimuli. Students are able to visualize and comprehend biological phenomena in new ways. The image analysis equipment allows them to ask significant biological questions based on observations and to learn how to use quantitative approaches to answer questions and problems. The impact of this new capability is expected to extend beyond these courses to other realms of the curriculum as videos and computer files conveying dynamic, three-dimensional and developmental representations of living processes are created and used in teaching.