While students in this department were receiving a modern view of physiology in their classrooms, their physiology laboratory experiences before the advent of this project in many instances were quite inadequate. Many of introductory and intermediate-level laboratories or projects were of a descriptive rather than an analytical nature. Other physiology-related laboratories or projects employed somewhat primitive equipment. A modern study of physiology even at the undergraduate level requires considerably more sophisticated equipment and methodologies than were available to this department. The objectives of this project are to enhance the quality of the laboratory in several physiology-related courses by moving the laboratory experience from the descriptive to the analytical. With the new equipment and the new or modified procedures recently introduced, students are able to make accurate collections of complex and meaningful data and to analyze it in the manner of the modern physiologist. Equipment includes a number of different transducers, and two multipurpose minicomputers complete with the hardware and software needed to interface with this equipment in a number of different configurations to study elements of both plant and animal physiology. The grantee institution is matching the NSF award with an equal sum obtained from non-Federal sources.
