Edmund C. Shearer DUE 9552053 Fort Hays State Univ FY1995 $ 42,200 Hays, KS 67601-4009 ILI - Instrumentation Project: Chemistry Title: Computerized Data Acquisition and Management in Freshman Chemistry Laboratory Students are being exposed to the pedagogically sound use of computers in those laboratory tasks they traditionally perform. The objectives are: more expeditious use of laboratory time, timely feed-back about the quality of data being gathered, opportunities to engage in "what if" exploration of the laboratory information, and broadening of student experience beyond the familiar use of computers while retaining the familiar approachability of the personal computer. Methods already used in our laboratories in the instruction of science majors are being extended to non-majors. All beginning chemistry students, majors and non-majors alike, have the benefit of computer-assisted data gathering and manipulation, affecting approximately half of their laboratory experiences in newly constructed laboratory facilities designed explicitly for this purpose. Data collection is being done using the Labworks interface, using "scripts" easily understood and constructed by the experimenter. Computer-generated report guidance reflects students' own tasks of data manipulation and also announces measures of the quality of the individual data set.
