Optimizing a Windows-Based Computer Data Acquisition and Reduction System for the General Chemistry Laboratory

该项目的产品将是基于Windows的普通化学实验室数据采集和还原系统，该系统基于廉价的通用硬件和标准软件。基于DOS的LIMSports系统将会成功地在我们的实验室使用多年，并通过七个为期一周的NSF/UFE夏季研讨会在全国范围内传播。大多数大学现在都在转向基于Windows的软件。这需要对LIMSports进行修订，但它也提供了一个实质性改进的机会。我们的系统的独特之处在于，它为最流行的电子表格(Excel和Lotus)添加了数据采集功能，因此学生可以在实验室学习标准的、可移植的数据分析方法，教师可以使用该系统作为创作语言来创建他们自己的实验，涉及直接数据采集。我们将为一些典型的普通化学实验准备电子表格模板，其中说明了如何使用现代电子表格中内置的强大的图形和数值方法来显示收集到的实时数据的趋势。已经制定了一项广泛的评估计划，以确定哪些计算机方法在促进学生在实验室学习方面最有效。将为LIMSports的新Windows/Excel版本编写一份实验室手册，其中纳入了我们工作的结果以及关于教育化学实验室的大量研究提出的特点。该手册将提供约30个适合普通化学的实验的背景信息，利用LIMSports利用少量相对无害的化学物质的能力。

The product of this project will be a Windows-based data acquisition and reduction system for general chemistry laboratories that is based on inexpensive, generic hardware and standard software. The DOS-based LIMSport system which it will succeed has been used for years in our laboratories with success, and has been disseminated nationwide by means of seven, week-long NSF/UFE Summer workshops. Most universities are now converting to Windows-based software. This necessitates a revision of LIMSport, but it also offers an opportunity for substantial improvement. Our system is unique in that it adds data acquisition capability to the most popular spreadsheets (Excel and Lotus), so that students learn standard, transferable methods of data analysis in the laboratory, and teachers can use the system as an authoring language to create their own experiments involving direct data acquisition. We will prepare spreadsheet templates for a number of typical general chemistry experiments which illustrate ways of using the powerful graphical and numerical methods built into modern spreadsheets to reveal trends in real-time data as they are collected. An extensive evaluation plan has been developed to determine which computer methods are most effective in promoting student learning in the laboratory. A laboratory manual will be written for the new Windows/Excel version of LIMSport which incorporates the results of our work as well as features suggested by the large body of research on educational chemistry laboratories. The manual will provide background information for about 30 experiments which are suitable for General Chemistry, using the capability of LIMSport to utilize small quantities of relatively innocuous chemicals.