A Visual Introduction to Laboratory Studies

由于最近全校范围内的课程倡议，所有密利金学生都必须完成至少一门科学课程，交织经验，反思和理论元素。教师们正在开发一套介绍性的专题课程来满足这一需求。目标是开发重点课程，让学生体验深入研究的兴奋感，同时将研究置于科学探究的总体原则的更广泛背景下。每门课程都将侧重于一个特定的探究领域，如分子结构、星星或草原生态学。各部门的教授正在制定一套共同的或共享的实验室练习；每个练习都将提出一个有趣的问题，同时介绍一个超越学科界限的基本调查方法或原则。最终，每位讲师将从一系列学科中选择一系列实验，以创建一个支持她/他的专题课程的实验室经验。虽然每门课程的目标是将特定研究领域的独特特征与科学家认知方式的共同特征联系起来，但选修几门课程的学生将获得一个特殊的视角。值得注意的是，这将是百分之二十的米利金学生成为小学或中学教师的情况，因为通过学习三门课程就可以满足认证要求。一个教师团队已经确定了十个总体过程，这些过程将在所有课程共享的实验练习中涵盖。本项目提供的设备将支持一个为期三周的实验室模块，该模块旨在介绍十个基本过程中的两个。这些是：使用仪器进行观察，扩展和提高人类一种或多种感官的准确性和精度；使用图形和数学表达式来组织和简化数据、想法和概念。这两个原则将通过一系列的练习来介绍，让学生根据物体的颜色考虑他们能说什么，然后用可见光透射光谱和反射光谱、可见光荧光光谱和红外光谱进行评估后重新考虑。

As a result of a recent University-wide curriculum initiative, all Millikin students are required to complete at least one science course that interweaves experiential, reflective and theoretical elements. Faculty are developing a set of introductory, special-topics courses to meet this need. The goal is to develop focused courses that will allow students to experience the excitement of an in-depth study while simultaneously placing the study in the broader context of overarching principles of scientific inquiry. Each course will focus on a particular area of inquiry, such as molecular structure, stars, or prairie ecology. A set of common or shared laboratory exercises are being developed by the professors of the various sections; each exercise will present an interesting question from the contributing professors discipline while introducing a fundamental method of inquiry or principle that transcends disciplinary boundaries. Ultimately, each instructor will select a series of experiments from a range of disciplines to create a laboratory experience that supports her/his special topics course. While the goal is for each course to stand alone in relating the unique characteristics of a specific field of study to the common features of the scientists' way of knowing, students taking several courses will gain a special perspective. Notably, this will be the case for the twenty percent of Millikin students who become elementary or secondary teachers since certification requirements will be fulfilled by taking three of the courses. A team of faculty have identified ten overarching processes that will be covered in laboratory exercises to be shared by all of the courses. This project provides equipment that will support a three-week laboratory module designed to introduce two of the ten foundational processes. These are: The use of instrumentation to make observations that both extend and improve the accuracy and precision of one or more of the human senses; and The use of graphs and mathematical ex pressions to organize and simplify data, ideas, and concepts. These two principles will be introduced through a series of exercises that have students consider what they can say about objects on the basis of their color and then reconsider after evaluating with visible transmission and reflectance spectra, visible fluorescence spectra and infrared spectra.