Interdisciplinary Computer Graphics Laboratory

这项建议是为了建立一个跨学科的计算机图形实验室，供一所小型大学(南罗斯州立大学)面向实地的地球科学系使用。我们试图在我们这个小机构解决的问题是，在地球科学学生的教育方面缺乏部门间的合作。我们的目标是开发一个计算机实验室，它将成为我们跨学科教学的焦点。它将增强我们在校园内整合不同地球科学--地质学、生物学和自然资源管理--的能力，并创建一个“在功能上”更大的地球科学系，而不是较小的单独系。该项目的主要预期成果将是创建一个新的多学科课程。这门课程将是一个学期的实验，要求学生从一小块田野中“获取、分析和呈现”数据。学生将在野外收集不同的地质/生物数据，将其集成到地理信息系统数据库中(在教师的帮助下)，分析数据以回答有关地质数据和生物数据之间相互关系的具体问题，并以公开论坛海报演示的形式展示结果。学生们将在二年级时学习这门课程(先决条件是其中一门学科的入门课程)。第二个重要的结果将是能够在学生本科生涯的后期将实验室整合到其他高级课程中。我们认为，这是一种创造性的手段，可以充分利用我们这样一个小机构提供的教育机会。

This proposal is for the creation of an interdisciplinary computer graphics laboratory for use by the field-oriented earth science departments at a small university (Sul Ross State University). The problem that we are trying to address at our small institution is the lack of interdepartmental cooperation in the education of earth science students. Our objective is to develop a computer laboratory that would be the focal point of our interdisciplinary teaching. It would enhance our ability to integrate the different earth sciences on campus-Geology, Biology, and Natural Resource Management, and create a "functionally' larger earth science department as opposed to the smaller individual departments. The primary expected outcome of the project would be to create a new multi-disciplinary course. This course would be a semester long experiment which would require students to "acquire, analyze, and present" data from a small field area. The students would collect diverse geologic/biologic data in the field, integrate it into a GIS database (with faculty help), analyze the data to answer specific questions regarding the interrelationships between the geologic and biologic data, and present the results in the form of an open forum poster presentation. The students would take this course at the sophomore level (the prerequisites would be an introductory course in one of the disciplines). A second significant outcome would then be the ability to integrate the laboratory into other advanced courses later in the students undergraduate career. We feel that this is a creative means of taking full advantage of the educational opportunities available at a small institution such as ours.