CVL Assessment

Assessment Challenges:

Prior to the construction of the CVL, a portable computer and projector were used display images in class. Students, however, were passive observers instead of active participants in the learning process.

• No facility was available where introductory classes could meet to complete open-ended inquiry-based activities.

• Few campus computers contained scientific software appropriate for advanced science and mathematics courses.

• Campus computer hardware could not support the computational needs of courses such as Bioinformatics or Numerical Methods in Physics

Solutions

• The new facility contains sufficient hardware that introductory classes can meet in the laboratory . Students work in small groups to design simple electrical circuits, examine the structure of DNA, and study the distribution of electrons in a simple molecule. As a result, they discover for themselves important physical and mathematical concepts .

• When students progress to upper-level courses, the number and complexity of technology-based activities increases, making computational methods a common thread that runs through the curriculum of each department.

• Each CVL machine is equiped with programs such as Alchemy 2000, Mathcad, Mathematica, and Spartan . These programs are used extensively in advanced courses.

• The facility provided Carthage the infrastructure to develop new courses which teach students the fundamentals of numerical techniques and expose them to the use of computational tools to analyze, store, and retrieve information.

Conclusions

• A Computational and Visualization Laboratory has been created and its use has been incorporated into Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Physics classes at Carthage College .

• In the Chemistry Department, the Physical, General, and Biochemistry courses were impacted the most by the creation of the new facility

• The facility allows both introductory and advanced students to conduct open-ended inquiry-based activities.

• Installation of Deep Freeze has eliminated most software problems in the laboratory.