This project computerizes the physiology laboratory with four Macintosh-based data acquisition stations, each with associated transducers and data analysis software. This equipment allows for expanding the goals of laboratory experiences in Human Anatomy and Physiology, Advanced Topics in Physiology, Organismal Biology of Animals, and Animal Behavior to address recent findings about the role of misconceptions in students' difficulties with science. Old laboratory experiences emphasized reinforcing and demonstrating the material covered in class; carrying out scientific hypothesis-testing experiments; and engaging in collaborative dialogue about, and criticism of, one another's experimental designs, findings, and inferences from the data. The new exercises include exploratory research, qualitative and quantitative model construction, and model testing. The new equipment is easy and fast enough to enable students to begin each laboratory with a period of discovery experimentation in which they explore subjects about which they may already hold misconceptions (e.g., the roles of oxygen and carbon dioxide in regulating respiration rates). Its mathematical abilities allow them to build and evaluate models, which they can then evaluate through hypothesis-testing experiments. When not in use for classroom experiments, the computers can be used for studying tutorial programs and for Internet access.
