Laboratory Enhancement of the Undergraduate Learning Experience in Biological Anthropology

生物人类学的大多数本科生课程主要是讲授，因为缺乏预定的实验室课程和可用材料的稀缺。这个系在上座率最高的入门课程中增加了一个新的实验室部分。然而，以前的资源只允许一个适当的实验室课程，而不是一个真正出色的创新机会，学生获得实践经验的最先进的材料和仪器，包括计算机模拟和数据库。通过这一项目，该系正在现有材料的基础上，为入门课程的学生设计一系列真正有意义和具有挑战性的实验室体验，并加强生物人类学课程中其他课程的互动学习部分。新的设备、计算机、软件、测量设备、记录材料、铸件和放大设备使入门课中的一系列具体实验室练习成为可能，这些练习增强了学生解决问题和合作学习的技能，鼓励合作、交流和对材料的更深层次的理解。由于该大学学生群体的特殊性，该项目有机会接触到许多学生，他们来自芝加哥市中心以及伊利诺伊州、密苏里州和肯塔基州农村地区资金不足的学校系统，他们的背景往往是科学方面的。这些学生包括第一代大学生、少数民族、经济和社会贫困学生、肢体残疾和学习障碍学生。结果可以通过在专业会议上发表演讲、在期刊上发表文章以及编写可供其他学校使用的实验室手册来传播。

Most undergraduate courses in biological anthropology remain primarily lecture because of the lack of scheduled laboratory sessions and the scarcity of available materials. This department has added a new laboratory section to the most heavily attended introductory class. However, previously resources have allowed for only an adequate laboratory course, not a truly outstanding, innovative opportunity for students to gain hands-on experience with state-of-the-art materials and instrumentation including computer simulations and databases. Through this project, the department is building on existing materials to develop a series of truly involving and challenging laboratory experiences designed for both students in the introductory class and to enhance the interactive learning components of other classes in the bioanthropology curriculum. The new equipment, computers, software, measuring devices, recording materials, casts, and magnification equipment, makes possible a series of specific laboratory exercises in the introductory class which enhances students' problem-solving and cooperative learning skills, encouraging collaboration, interchange, and deeper levels of understanding of the material. Because of the special nature of the university's student body, the project has the opportunity to reach many students who come from backgrounds often marked by poor exposure to science, from the under-funded school systems of inner city Chicago and the rural areas of Illinois, Missouri, and Kentucky. These students include first generation college students, minorities, economically and socially disadvantaged students, and physically challenged and learning disabled students. Results can be disseminated through presentations at professional meetings, publications in journals, and the compilation of a lab manual which can be made available to other schools.