9452403 Murray Powerbooks and desktop computer workstations are used for field and laboratory studies in ecology. This project is also part of a departmental effort to improve science learning experiences for our ethnically-diverse undergraduates and provides more opportunities for projects, discussion, cooperative learning, and oral and written communication work. Another goal is to insure that our students gain skills in collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data and presenting their results by using modern computing instrumentation and application software. Powerbooks are used to collect and analyze data in the lab and at several remote field sites in support of 1) a weekly lab being added to a required majors ecology course, and 2) selected elective courses in our ecology and organismic biology program. The Powerbooks are equipped with modems and Ethernet connections to allow remote and lab access to a custom File Server, the campus mainframe, and other electronic resources.
