The advisory committee for NSF's education activities recently called for all students to learn science by participating in the methods of science. This project is a pilot demonstration of the Web as a platform for achieving that goal in an affordable and attractive manner. During the last five years, Loyola College has upgraded many of its science courses for majors based on modern information processing and networking techniques with assistance of a series of grants. This project will extend the benefits of these investments to the introductory science courses for nonmajors via an Internet/intranet system that will serve as a site for highly-interactive multimedia courseware, both locally developed and downloaded from other sites. The user interface will be structured as a virtual Internet Science Institute (ISI) with one building and two wings: Physics and Computer Science, each with classrooms with courseware, laboratories with virtual experiments, departmental libraries with other teaching materials, and a faculty seminar room for exchange of ideas in science teaching. The newly available Java network programming standard and an intranet structure will greatly speed access, making high bandwidth media and true user interactivity feasible. A special effort will be made to encourage development of interactive science courseware via organization of peer review panels to validate its quality and monthly recognition of the best courseware submitted. Courseware will be developed at Loyola to teach science by involving physics students in the scientific method, and students of computer science and engineering in the design of hardware and software. Initially the material will be tested in specific courses for non-majors, targeting those for education majors intending to teach science where possible. ISI will also be available for other Loyola students and as an Internet site for public use.
