A long-standing challenge for biology students has been dealing with complex visual information. In research labs and a few advanced courses, traditional film photography has been the method of choice to deal with these visual images. The complexity and expense of this technique, however, has precluded its use in most biology course at the college and pre-college levels.
Recent, profound changes in CCD technology and improvements in computer memory storage promise to change this situation. Consumer digital cameras are now widely available and seem to be following the same evolutionary trend seen for computer scanners: increased quality accompanied by an enormous decline in price. The advent of the USB microcomputer bus, wide availability of e-mail and low-priced CD-RW drives has greatly improved the ability to transfer and store digital images.
We predict that these technological trends will allow the routine use of digital cameras in biology laboratories. These devices may become as commonplace as student microscopes. In anticipation of this trend this project is: 1) investigating adapting consumer level digital cameras for use in a wide range of student lab activities including microscopy, anatomy, taxonomy, motion analysis and animal behavior, 2) providing student laboratory groups in undergraduate zoology courses with digital cameras at every lab meeting, 3) providing these students with the means for storing pictorial information in disk format or via their e-mail accounts, 4) observing student behavior and their use of these cameras and, 5) measuring changes in student attitudes and learning as a result of using these devices.
This project provides a model by which an existing, evolving technology can become a common part of biology courses at the pre-college and introductory college levels.
