Computerized Data Acquisition, Computer Simulations, and theWorld Wide Web in a Unique Undergraduate Laboratory in Physiology

这个小型的文科机构为大约5，000名本科生提供服务。每年大约有300名学生在五门独立的生物学课程中进行生理学实验室实验。这些学生中有6%到7%来自传统上代表性不足的科学群体。在这些课程中，学生通过基于探究的方法以及通过合作和协作学习来学习生理概念和技术。虽然用于收集和记录与生理事件有关的数据的实验室方法进展迅速，但学生可用的设备却没有跟上步伐。正在开发一系列基于已经进行的实验，使学生有机会使用最先进的传感器和仪器以及计算机化采集系统收集和分析数据。此外，使用其他生理事件的计算机模拟，允许在短时间内以低成本获得实际的实验室经验、现实的实验设计和数据分析。包括旨在研究人类生理学的额外实验室练习，使实验室体验更适合于更广泛的学生，并有助于招募更多代表性不足的学生进入生物学。最后，所有新的实验练习和学生收集的数据可以通过万维网提供。发布数据使在世界各地进行相同实验的学生能够共享数据，改进实验室练习，并建立可以在整个职业生涯中为他们服务的网络。

This small, liberal arts institution serves approximately 5,000 undergraduate students. Each year approximately 300 students conduct physiology laboratory experiments in one of five separate biology courses. Six to seven percent of these students come from traditionally underrepresented groups in the sciences. In these courses, students learn physiological concepts and techniques through an inquiries-based approach and through cooperative and collaborative learning. While the laboratory methods for collecting and recording data pertaining to physiological events have progressed rapidly, the equipment available to students has not kept pace. A series of experiments based upon those already being performed is being developed to give students the opportunity to collect and analyze data with state-of-the-art transducers and instrumentation and a computerized acquisition system. Additionally, computer simulations of other physiological events are used, allowing for practical lab experience, realistic experimental design, and data analysis in a short period of time and at a low cost. The inclusion of additional laboratory exercises designed to investigate human physiology makes the lab experience more relative to a wider variety of students and helps recruit more underrepresented students into biology. Finally, all new laboratory exercises and student-collected data can be made available through the World Wide Web. Posting the data enables students conducting the same experiments throughout the world to share their data, refine the laboratory exercises, and establish networks that can serve them throughout their careers.