The long-term goal of this project is to propose strategies for development of multi-disciplinary courses that are streamlined to convey the cumulative impact of several subjects, including mathematical analysis and modeling, to address and solve a scientific or environmental problem of broad societal interest. The objective of this phase of the project is to propose a method for development of such new materials by taking advantage of a unifying concept of exceptional perceptual appeal and human affinity, namely symmetry. To facilitate widespread impact of the project, it is important to address at the same time the related problem of updating the existing courses thus, gradually transforming them into such multi-disciplinary topics of contemporary relevance. To accomplish the above-mentioned objectives, a sequence of course-modules will be developed to cover a variety of topics in which symmetry, geometric transformations and geometric structures play a key role in an interdisciplinary context. The modules will be sufficiently flexible in content and format, and their interdisciplinary nature serves to fashion interfaces and links to other modules, a factor that will prove essential for ease of assembly and multitude of modular combinations. The instructors select a number of modules from the Arts, Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics and Psychology to form a coherent multi-disciplinary general undergraduate course with their targeted audience in mind. By design, such courses emphasize symmetry and geometric structures as a unifying underlying theme, thus containing substantial analytic and visual content. The modules have two components: (a) text and other forms of multi-media materials that convey information regarding the topic at hand ; (b) software pieces that encourage the students to experiments hands-on computational aspects of the topic, through simplified numerical and symbolic computations, and visualization. The purpose of the software components is to enhance the lectures in t he course by instructor-supervised computer lab sessions that engage the students in the process of discovery and active participation to explore the quantitative aspects. The lectures are intended to be expository and accessible to a general audience, and when possible, leaving in depth exploration as part of projects that should be dealt with in the lab component. The modules do not require mathematics and science beyond standard high school level, thus aiming to attract primarily the students who have not majored in mathematics and the physical sciences. Special emphais will be placed to attract future teachers of science and mathematics, and to encourage them to experiment with similar course-development ideas, proposing modifications of the software and the text to suite K-12 audience that they will plan to teach. The evaluation plan includes teaching pilot courses at University of Wisconsin (Madison) and Montana State University (Bozeman), and Rutgers University (New Ark). In the course of pilot courses, besides soliciting standard evaluation responses from the students, instructors, and reviewers, assessment of student learning and attitude improvement, creativity in lab projects, and facility with computer-assisted quantitative problems will be studied (and where applicable, it will be followed up in the subsequent year and compared to standard courses.) Further, a number of modules will be incorporated in existing courses at the participating institutions: Clemson University, UW Madison, UC Berkeley, Montana State University, and Illinois Institute of Technology. The dissemination plans include publication of a text and accompanying multi-media software through major commercial companies, active recruiting of future users through demonstration and training sessions that will be organized in conjunction with national and regional professional meetings, in particular in Montana and Midwest. The materials will be available on the WWW, and much of the software will be developed using platfo rm-independent languages such as Java, to encourage wider exposure and adoption. It is expected that the courses resulting from this project would be attractve to a wide audience from the arts, humanities and soft sciences as alternatives to standard undergraduate requirements for quantitative reasoning, and to attract them to develop a stronger background in science and mathematics. On the other end of this equation, the modules illustrate how art and humanities enrich teaching of hard sciences. In addition, some of the course-modules are suitable for adapotion in alternative educational programs, e.g. using distance learning or in the context of extended and informal education.
