| Virtual Labs and Field Trips This
page includes examples of Web-enabled virtual labs and field trips from
 Biotechnology
How To
Calculate Biodiversity?
William R. Jones, MEES-698 (Biofilms and Biodiversity*), University of Maryland
Biotechnology Institute
This assignment asks students to conduct an online experiment by following a series of
steps, reading extensive information, testing a biodiversity measurement tool, and
reviewing a set of critical thinking answers. The assignment is intended to provide
relevant, hands-on experience with the research process and allow students to learn by
testing and evaluating scientific hypotheses.
This assignment is part of a Biofilms
& Biodiversity course offered by the Collaborative Virtual University Education Program (VIRTUE), and it
contains a number of interactive modules designed to develop practitioner skills in
students. In one such assignment, "You're the Expert," students are asked to determine the
biodiversity of an area that interests them and use what they have learned in previous
assignments to analyze data and compute biodiversity measures.
This course and its assignments suggest powerful ways to use Web-based material and
tools to create a virtual laboratory that encourages students to think and act like
scientific researchers.
*Biofilms & Biodiversity is a pilot course in the Web Initiative in Teaching
(WIT) project administered by the University System of Maryland's Institute for Distance Education.
This example features the use of text, images, and scripts.
Causality and
Statistics
Causation &
Statistics
Laboratory for Symbolic and Educational Computing, Philosophy Department, Carnegie
Mellon University
Causation & Statistics is a part of a large-scale project providing interactive,
Web-based courseware on causal reasoning with statistical data, both in experimental and
nonexperimental settings. The lab is a simulated laboratory for setting up, carrying out,
and analyzing experiments. It is designed to give hands-on experience in the scientific
pursuit of causal knowledge.
Visitors to this site get access to over a dozen interactive problems involving
statistical concepts such as relative frequency, conditional relative frequency,
independence, and conditional independence, and causality concepts such as causation in
individuals and populations, determinism and indeterminism, and causal graphing.
Causation & Statistics has been developed with help from the Fund for the Improvement of
Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE), and its interactive resources are accompanied by
extensive methodological guidance and a public-access library of educational applets. The
lab provides an outstanding example of how a faculty-directed project has connected
methodologies and traditional approaches with interactive media to create an imaginative
online learning environment.
This example features the use of applets.
Geology
Virtual
Field Geology: Geologic Tours of Southern California
Ron Morris, Joshua Myers, Autumn King, Edwin Bragado, Elizabeth Ambos, and Bruce
Perry, Department of Geological Sciences, California State University, Long Beach
This virtual field trip traces the geological structure of the San Andreas Fault Zone,
which forms the boundary between two converging lithospheric plates: the Pacific Plate and
the North American Plate. Students who take the tour click on a map showing different
areas of southern California and are led to extensive information about the San Andreas
Fault line in each area. The site narratives are supplemented with maps, photographs,
movies and other visuals, and links to relevant Web sites.
There is no actual assignment specified for this virtual field trip, but the site is
designed to supplement CSULB's Introductory Field Geology course. The Department of
Geological Sciences home page at CSULB features links to nine
other virtual field trip sites exploring subjects such as minerals, landslides,
volcanoes, and shorelines.
This example features the use of downloaded media,
images, text,
and Web sites.
Physics
University of Oregon
VLAB
Department of Physics, University of Oregon
This is a collection of interactive problems for use in physics, astronomy, or
environmental science courses. The modules consist of problem-solving exercises in such
subjects as atomic emission, exponential growth, kinetic energy, momentum, thermodynamics,
voltage, and so on. One of the exercises is entitled "Simulate Global Warming"
and asks students to manipulate different variables and arrive at a formula for preventing
polar meltdown. The exercise on Momentum
asks the student to shoot a cannon at a railcar and then calculate the velocity of the
shot by manipulating variables.
The exercises in the University of Oregon VLAB could be used as a resource in any
physics course, or simply to learn about the kinds of information, processes, and
activities typical to physics and fields influenced by physics. The exercises show how new
media can be harnessed effectively to map and demonstrate the laws of physics and the
consequences of their operation.
This example features the use of applets
and text.
This project is a joint initiative of the Center for the Virtual University and the Center for Teaching and Learning
at UMUC.
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Adelphi, Maryland 20783 USA
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