Subject: NSF Press Release - Undergraduate labs
From: Dot Baker <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 08 Nov 91 10:13 EST

Hi Paul,
     Please post this to the NIH Listserver as:
       UNDERGRAD.911108
 ---------------------------- Text of forwarded message -----------------------
Title       : UNDERGRADUATE LABORATORIES IMPROVED THROUGH NSF GRANTS
NSF Contact : OLPA
Type        : Press Release
Date        : November 4, 1991

Cheryl Dybas                                            IMMEDIATE
(202) 357-9498                                   November 4, 1991
                                                     NSF PR 91-97
 
     UNDERGRADUATE LABORATORIES IMPROVED THROUGH NSF GRANTS

     To improve the quality of undergraduate science,
engineering, and mathematics education, the National Science
Foundation has awarded 692 grants totalling $25.1 million to
fund upgrades of undergraduate laboratories.
     Grants in the Instrumentation and Laboratory Improvement
(ILI) Program have been made to 445 institutions of higher
education, including community colleges, four-year colleges, and
doctoral universities in 46 states, Puerto Rico, and the District
of Columbia.  Funds used for purchasing instrumentation must be
matched with at least an equal amount from other sources.  In
addition to grants for instrumentation, for the first time the
ILI program has made grants for Leadership Projects in Laboratory
Development to support projects to develop models for
undergraduate laboratories of national significance.
     The awards cover a wide range of scientific disciplines,
including the physical, biological, behavioral, and social
sciences, engineering, computer science, mathematics and
interdisciplinary areas.  For example:
-                             more-
 
-                                         2-
 
     The National Undergraduate Research Observatory is a
consortium of 11 primarily undergraduate institutions, centered
around a 31-inch telescope near Flagstaff, Arizona.  Under a
grant to Northern Arizona University, undergraduate students from
member schools are using a charge-coupled-device (CCD) camera and
associated computers to make astronomical observations,
particularly those dealing with supernovae and faint asteroids.
 
     At Colgate University (New York), a network of NeXT
computers is being used by computer science majors in courses in
computer organization and design.  In addition, a new course,
"Computer Modelling: A Tool for the Mind" is being created that
introduces non-science students to applications of computer
science, such as artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and
chaos theory.
 
     Under the Leadership in Laboratory Development component of
ILI, Dickinson College (Pennsylvania) is continuing the
development of an introductory physics laboratory program
centered around the use of microcomputer tools for the
collection, display, and analysis of scientific data.  Computer
tools are used for both qualitative and quantitative observations
of physical data.  Curricular materials are being modified so
that they can be used in a variety of kinds of introductory
courses, including large university courses.
 
     Owens Technical College (Ohio) is developing a state-of-the-
art Metrology Data Center to enable students in the Quality
Engineering Technology program to learn efficient methods of
collecting plant process and quality data, and effective means of
turning those data into useful information for manufacturing and
decision making.
 
     Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (New York) is developing a
collaborative materials-oriented freshman chemistry laboratory
that shows the beauty, complexity, and discovery aspects of
science.  Labs include: measurements of rates and equilibrium
constants for reversible reactions of biomolecules; the
relationship between hardness, tensile strength, resistivity, and
phase equilibria of alloys; the effect of polymerization on the
distribution of molecular weights.
 
     Under the Leadership in Laboratory Development component of
ILI, the University of New Hampshire is developing an
interdisciplinary upper-division course for science, engineering,
and mathematics majors in numerical methods that incorporates the
methodology of advanced scientific computing.  A library of case
studies is being prepared.
 
-                             more-

-                                         3-
 
     A new mechanical systems laboratory at the Georgia Institute
of Technology reinforces mechanical principles taught in previous
courses, exposes students to technologies beyond those taught in
the classroom, and convinces students that they can learn
material that is not presented in class.  Individual experiments
are conducted at flexible laboratory stations set up by the
students using checked-out equipment, and at dedicated
experimental centers that are accessed by students through the
campus communications network.
 
     A project at the State University of New York, Geneseo,
gives undergraduates the opportunity to develop skill and
expertise in experimental behavioral biology through experiments
in communication, electrolocation, receptor physiology, and
physiological behavior, using weakly electric fish.  Because the
students are actively involved in the experiments they become
familiar with the type of equipment used in modern behavioral
biology research, and have a greater understanding of the
concepts involved and of research methodology.
 
     A mathematics project at Portland (Oregon) State University
is conducting short- and long-term educational studies comparing
the performance of students in pre-calculus courses.  Courses
making use of each of these new technologies are being developed
at different institutions, but this is the first time that the
effectiveness of different systems is being compared in a
systematic manner.
 
-                              end-
 
ATTACHMENT: 1991 ILI Awardees

     The National Science Foundation is an independent agency of
the federal government established in 1950 to promote and advance
scientific progress in the United States.  NSF accomplishes its
mission primarily by competitively awarding grants to educational
institutions for research and education in the sciences,
mathematics, and engineering.

..stis file is pr9197
..expires May 1992
 
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