9451362 Lerman Columbia College is equipping a laboratory with computer animation and video editing equipment necessary to train students in the interdisciplinary field between science, visualization, and communication. These students obtain a strong background in science, computer animation and video production, enabling them to create and capture a visual perspective of science, and to create video models showing scientific processes such as chemical reactions, heat transfer, digestion, fission and fusion. These broadcast quality videos are ideally suited for dissemination among science teachers at all levels. The Institute for Science Education and Science Communication has been working for three years in collaboration with Columbia College's Academic Computing, Television, and Film/Video departments on the development of a program in Science Visualization and Communication. Students concentrate in this area under other majors. The development of this laboratory is a crucial step in Columbia's development of this degree program. The program addresses the problem stated by Nobel Laureate Roald Hoffmann on the difficulties in producing good video programs in science because of the lack of a common language between scientists and communicators.
