Improvement of Computing Facilities for Undergraduate Education in the Marine Sciences

西华盛顿大学（WWU）在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，通过香农角海洋中心（SPMC）及其海洋科学课程为广大本科生提供服务。目前，这包括1)WWU理科专业的学生可以继续研究生教育；2)正在评估是否有兴趣将海洋科学作为专业的社区大学学生；3)参加SPMC国家本科海洋教育中心（NUMEC）项目的高级本科生。NUMEC允许来自美国各地的学生在其本国机构正在进行的本科课程的背景下在海洋中心学习。我们所有的课程都为本科生提供了独特的机会，让他们接受海洋科学最新概念的教育，接受海洋研究中使用的最先进技术的培训，并从事有监督的独立研究。SPMC缺少这种培训的一个关键组成部分是使用复杂数据分析和表示技术的指导。我们请求为在SPMC建立一个局域网（LAN）所需的计算机设备提供资金，该局域网将与世界海洋大学的大型计算机相连。我们还要求6台专门供学生使用的新个人电脑，使我们能够在我们的NUMEC项目中纳入最先进的数据分析和演示技术培训。新的计算机网络还将促进远程学生和教师之间的通信，并允许SPMC在教学和社区外展项目中制作和使用基于万维网的材料。

Western Washington University (WWU), with support from NSF, serves a broad undergraduate audience through the Shannon Point Marine Center (SPMC) and its marine science curriculum. At present, this includes 1) WWU science majors who may pursue graduate education; 2) community college students who are assessing their interest in pursuing marine science as a major; and 3) advanced undergraduates participating in SPMC National undergraduate Marine Education Center (NUMEC) programs. NUMEC allows students from around the United States to study at a marine center within the context of their on-going undergraduate programs at their home institutions. All of our programs provide undergraduates with unique opportunities to become educated in the most recent concepts in marine science, to be trained in state-of-the-art techniques used in marine research, and to engage in supervised, independent research. A critical component of this training absent at SPMC is instruction in the use of sophisticated data analysis and presentation techniques. We are requesting funding for computer equipment needed to establish a local area network (LAN) at SPMC that would be linked to mainframe computers at WWU. We are also requesting 6 new personal computers dedicated to student use that would allow us to incorporate training in state-of-the-art data analysis and presentation techniques in our NUMEC programs. The new computer network also would facilitate communications between remotely located students and faculty and allow SPMC to produce and use World Wide Web based materials in our teaching and for community outreach projects.