This proposal seeks support for implementing a network of computer workstations in an undergraduate physical anthropology laboratory. This network will complement and enrich the "hands-on" experiences of students in two introductory level laboratory science courses (Introduction to Human Evolution and Introduction to Human Variation), and one advanced level course in Human Osteology. These courses target both science majors and non-science majors, including many prospective elementary and secondary school teachers, as well as pre-professional students with interests in medicine, dentistry or veterinary science. The workstations will be used in conjunction with actual physical specimens and a graphics database to be created using a high resolution digital imaging camera. These images will be stored on an NT Server that will link the workstations and peripherals and provide internet connectivity. The many unique specimens in the Department's collections of fossil human and primate materials will be available for on-screen display, allowing students to make comparative observational and measurement assessments between them and the specimens at their workbenches. SigmaScan Pro and Microsoft Office drawing tools will be used for the on-screen measurements and analysis to be made. The high performance, high capacity server that will operate the LAN allows the many "one-of-a-kind" specimens which the Department has in its collections to be accessed simultaneously by up to 15 student study groups. Students will be actively engaged in an interactive process of discovery by observation and measurement. This will make real for them both the inherent variation and the inherent similarity of all our close relatives, and the significance of these differences and similarities in the context of our evolutionary history. As work on development of the laboratory progresses, it will be documented on an Anthropology at Lehman College web homepage and reported at major anthropology society meetings.
