This project provides basic laboratory teaching equipment for a new, multidisciplinary science course (the Natural World) that emphasizes the basic foundations of natural science, science as a way of knowing, the uses of science, historical influences on the development of science, and the interrelationships between science and culture. A 2-semester laboratory-based course, the Natural World is a part of a new core curriculum of 38 hours that seeks to integrate the various academic disciplines within a set of comprehensive and cohesive interdisciplinary courses. The Natural World is centered around multidisciplinary topics of current relevance. The course is being linked to two humanities courses that students take concurrently. This project involves 10 faculty members from five science disciplines in the design of a modular curriculum for multidisciplinary, collaboratively taught courses designed for larger comprehensive universities. The laboratory activities emphasize critical thinking skills, active learning, and collaboration among students. The labs involve hands-on, discovery-based learning. The project seeks to provide students with an understanding of how science is done by helping them explore the scientific method, hypothesis formulation and testing, collection of data, analysis of data, and the interpretation of data in the context of hypotheses. The equipment is being used to implement the laboratory portion of the Natural World course. The goal is to provide students with the opportunity to experience science first-hand. With this basic scientific equipment and computer resources, students are able to examine and analyze important scientific issues and to make rational, objective decisions about these issues.
