This project grows out of curricular needs in cell and molecular biology, environmental science, and student research. A partnership with International Business Machine will assist in developing the project. The Division of Natural Sciences has been funded to build a multi-functional facility comprising a network that will tie together a central computer classroom with a series of laboratory satellite stations. Using computer- assisted instrumentation, this project will enhance our curriculum in four ways: (1) upgrade our offerings in the structural/functional aspects of cell biology from a descriptive to an analytical approach to biological principles; (2) enhance the analytical and conceptual quality of research opportunities for undergraduates via our required, year-long, Senior Project, in a way that will expand the principles that can be addressed and introduce students to modern instrumentation; (3) allow the use of analytical microscopical techniques appropriate for students concentrating in ecological and environmental biology; and (4) allow active participation in computer-controlled data collection and analysis with an integrated system in which students collect data and digitize images in a microscopy laboratory and prepare analyses and reports in the computer classroom.
