Improvement in Data Collection Tools for Field Biology

密利金大学生物系将使用计算机接口的野外数据收集设备来扩大各级学生可以解决的野外问题的种类，包括生物专业、教育专业和其他非专业的学生。准确的数据记录现场传感器，包括光质和强度、空气和土壤温度以及水生系统不同深度的溶解氧和温度，将与便携式和耐用的现场显微镜、夜视眼镜和仪器相结合，以测量植物的水分胁迫和光合作用，以便在以萨拉湖度假中心为实地地点的课程中解决个人和集体问题。改进的环境测量系统、植物响应计和现场观察工具将为学生提出的问题提供快速和明确的答案，增强调查技能。然后，学生可以专注于制定和完善假设、设计实验和解释数据所涉及的科学思维。这将导致更好地理解过程，从而更好地研究和/或向未来的学生传播概念。

Millikin University Biology Department will use computer- interfaced field data collection equipment to expand the kinds of field problems that can be addressed by students at all levels, both biology majors, and education majors and other non-majors. Accurate, data-logging field sensors of light quality and intensity, air and soil temperature, and of dissolved oxygen and temperature at various depths of aquatic systems, will be coupled with portable and durable field microscopes, night vision glasses, and instrumentation to measure plant moisture stress and photosynthesis, for individual and group problem-solving in courses using the Lake Sara Retreat Center as a field site. Improved environmental measurement systems, plant response meters, and field observation tools will provide rapid and unambiguous answers to student-initiated questions, reinforcing investigative skills. Students can then focus on the scientific thinking involved in formulating and refining hypotheses, designing experiments, and interpreting data. This will lead to better understanding of processes and therefore better research and/or dissemination of concepts to their future students.