Introduction of Digital Cameras in Biology Laboratories

生物科学(61)生物学学生长期面临的一个挑战是如何处理复杂的视觉信息。在研究实验室和一些高级课程中，传统的胶片摄影已经成为处理这些视觉图像的首选方法。然而，这项技术的复杂性和昂贵使其无法在大学和大学前的大多数生物课程中使用。最近，CCD技术的深刻变化和计算机内存存储的改进有望改变这种情况。消费类数码相机现在随处可见，似乎正在遵循计算机扫描仪的发展趋势：质量提高的同时价格大幅下降。USB微型计算机总线的出现、电子邮件和低价CD-RW驱动器的广泛使用极大地提高了传输和存储数字图像的能力。我们预测，这些技术趋势将允许在生物实验室中常规使用数码相机。这些设备可能会变得和学生显微镜一样常见。鉴于这一趋势，该项目将：1)研究如何将消费级数码相机应用于广泛的学生实验室活动，包括显微镜、解剖学、分类学、运动分析和动物行为；2)在每次实验会议上为动物学本科课程的学生实验组提供数码相机；3)为这些学生提供以磁盘格式或通过他们的电子邮件账户存储图片信息的手段；4)观察学生的行为及其使用这些相机的情况；5)测量使用这些设备后学生态度和学习的变化。这个项目提供了一个模型，通过这个模型，现有的、不断发展的技术可以成为大学预科和大学入门阶段生物课程的常见部分。

Biological Sciences (61) A long-standing challenge for biology students has been dealing with complex visual information. In research labs and a few advanced courses, traditional film photography has been the method of choice to deal with these visual images. The complexity and expense of this technique, however, has precluded its use in most biology course at the college and pre-college levels.Recent, profound changes in CCD technology and improvements in computer memory storage promise to change this situation. Consumer digital cameras are now widely available and seem to be following the same evolutionary trend seen for computer scanners: increased quality accompanied by an enormous decline in price. The advent of the USB microcomputer bus, wide availability of e-mail and low-priced CD-RW drives has greatly improved the ability to transfer and store digital images. We predict that these technological trends will allow the routine use of digital cameras in biology laboratories. These devices may become as commonplace as student microscopes. In anticipation of this trend this project is:1) investigating adapting consumer level digital cameras for use in a wide range of student lab activities including microscopy, anatomy, taxonomy, motion analysis and animal behavior, 2) providing student laboratory groups in undergraduate zoology courses with digital cameras at every lab meeting, 3) providing these students with the means for storing pictorial information in disk format or via their e-mail accounts, 4) observing student behavior and their use of these cameras and, 5) measuring changes in student attitudes and learning as a result of using these devices. This project provides a model by which an existing, evolving technology can become a common part of biology courses at the pre-college and introductory college levels.