The goal of this project is to modernize and improve freshman and sophomore biology and chemistry laboratories on the three campuses of a remote two-year college that enrolls large numbers of Native Americans, many of whom are female. The new equipment being incorporated into the teaching program includes plant growth chambers, marine aquaria and computer-interfaced physiology instrumentation. The environmental chambers enhance the school's ability to conduct General Biology laboratory experiments involving plant competition and animal metabolism. The salt-water aquaria are used to expose General Biology students (most of whom are completely unfamiliar with the ocean) to marine invertebrates. The computer-interfaced physiology instrumenta- tion vastly improves second-year students' opportunities to collect data that quantify the adaptive responses of animals to varying stimuli. The importance of this instrumentation is that its use in undergraduate laboratory instruction provides more effective teaching of scientific methods for understanding the environment. A practical grasp of how scientific methods are used by investigators is important for both science and non-science majors, and environmental topics hold a special interest for this audience. The grantee institution is matching the NSF award with an equal sum obtained from non-Federal sources.
