The new instructional equipment procured through this project is raising the quality of nearly every course taught in the Biology and Chemistry Departments. This wide-spread impact results from the way it is enhancing the laboratory experience so that the experimental skills and techniques developed by these students are better matched to the high level of theoretical training they traditionally have received here. The degree of change varies among the courses, with the greatest initial improvements being seen in the upper-level courses and in the Junior- Senior Research Seminar experience. The new equipment has been selected for maximal student utilization, as well as for its relevance to modern technology. Student interest in the sciences is finding strong reinforcment through their greatly increased opportunities to actually engage in scientific laboratory work, rather than merely hearing about it in the lecture hall.
