Creating Linkages through Institution-wide Reform of the Science Curriculum

密立金大学将开展一项为期三年的课程开发项目，由生物、化学、物理和数学等系的教师广泛参与，继续努力将上述学科联系起来。我们将开发一套科学入门课程：*将科学与学术界的其他部分联系起来*将科学相互联系起来；*将我们的学生和课程与周围社区联系起来。这些目标源于我们在美立金遇到的挑战。一个挑战是，本科生往往不善于辨别跨学科界限的基本原则的适用性。米利金已经做了很多工作，把我们大学社区内的科学结合在一起。然而，由于传统科学课程倾向于掩盖所有科学学科共有的共同方法和目的，这项任务艰巨而富有挑战性。因此，还有许多工作要做。这种专业化的趋势也往往使学生无法解决重要的社区问题和问题，而这些问题和问题本可以从密立金学生和教师的密切关注和帮助中受益。我们的社会需要与大学建立更紧密的伙伴关系。我们致力于开发一套科学入门课程，让学生学习一门特定的学科，探索对所有科学都重要的基本研究方法和原理，并学习这些方法和原理如何与所选领域和其他科学学科相关。每个课程部分都将侧重于一个特定的探究领域，如星星或草原生态学。一套常见的实验练习将由教授所提供的各个部分的教师开发；每个练习都将提出一个有趣的问题，这些问题来自于贡献教授的学科，但将探索对所有科学领域都重要的基本研究方法或原则。学生完成每个练习后，将在每个部分的上下文中探讨探究的图解原则或方法。学生们还将编写练习，呈现给当地K至12年级的学生。计划中的改革是米利金大学全机构规划的一个组成部分。它得到了教师和行政部门的广泛支持。它将建立在教师和行政部门的先前活动的基础上，这些活动自然地朝着这个方向发展。首席研究员毛里·迪兹勒博士在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，于20世纪90年代初领导了圣十字学院“发现化学”课程的开发。米利金学院的系主任们完全支持这一努力。物理系主任正在开发国家科学基金会ILI奖（“基本常数-现代物理实验室，9552171）的实时实验室模块。生物、化学和物理系主任目前正在美国国家科学基金会支持的“通过共同实验室经验整合科学”项目（9555029）中工作。米利金正在成功地为一个新的科学大楼筹集资金，该大楼将容纳本科生实验室设施，旨在将这些教学和学习方法结合起来。米利金还为本科生开展暑期研究项目。

Millikin University will engage in a three-year curriculum development project with extensive participation by faculty from the departments of biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics to continue our efforts to link the above disciplines. We will develop a set of introductory science courses which: * Link the sciences to the rest of academe * Link the sciences with each other; and * Link our students and the courses with the surrounding community. These goals have arisen from challenges we have encountered at Millikin. One challenge is that undergraduates are often not skilled in discerning the applicability of fundamental principles across disciplinary boundaries. Millikin has already done much work to bring the sciences together within our university community. However, this task is large and challenging as a consequence of the tendency in traditional science courses to mask the common methods and purpose shared by all science disciplines. Hence, much remains to be done. This tendency towards specialization has also tended to isolate students from addressing important community problems and issues that would benefit from closer attention and assistance from the Millikin students and faculty. Our community needs a stronger partnership with the University. We are engaged in developing a set of introductory science courses which allow students to study a specific discipline, to explore fundamental methods of inquiry and principles important to all sciences, and to learn how these methods and principles are relevant to both the chosen field and also to the other science disciplines. Each course section will focus on a particular area of inquiry, such as stars or prairie ecology. A set of common laboratory exercises will be developed by the faculty involved in teaching each of the various sections being offered; each exercise will present an interesting question drawn from the contributing professor's discipline yet will explore a fundamental method of inquiry or principle important to all fields of science. After the students complete each exercise, the illustrated principle or method of inquiry will be explored in the context of each section. Students will also develop exercises to present to local school children in grades K to 12. The planned reform is an integral part of institution-wide planning at Millikin University. It has the broad support of the faculty and the administration. It will build on prior activities of the faculty and administration that lead naturally in this direction. The principal investigator, Dr. Mauri Ditzler, lead the development of the "Discovery Chemistry" curriculum at the College of the Holy Cross in the early 1990s, with support from the NSF. The Millikin department chairs are wholly supportive of this effort. The chair of the Physics department is developing just in time laboratory modules under an NSF ILI award ("Fundamental Constants - Modern Physics Laboratory, 9552171). The chairs of biology, chemistry, and physics are currently working under NSF support in "Integrating the Sciences through Common Laboratory Experiences," (9555029). Millikin is successfully raising funds for a new science building that will house undergraduate laboratory facilities designed to incorporate these methods of instruction and learning. Millikin also conducts a summer research program for undergraduate students.