The online material will use collaborative learning techniques to increase a student's ability to perform mathematical analysis of data and expand distance learning opportunities at Suffolk County Community College. These workshops have resulted in the development of many individual and department web pages that facilitate communication among faculty and students. With the successful development of my web site I realized that I could use web postings to enhance student understanding of laboratory experiments. With the time available during my sabbatical I plan to expand this area by developing web sites for biology laboratory data.
Data collection is an integral component of biology laboratories.
An online site permits students to load data collected in the laboratory directly onto a web site that is available to other students. Once posted to the web, data can then be used by many students in other sections of the same course to increase their sample size for mathematical analysis and to illustrate concepts using graphs. An online site would allow instructors in other courses and disciplines to use the data at any time. During my sabbatical I plan to develop a second type of online laboratory exercises, an interactive website with histology images, microscopic views of organs and tissues and interactive exercises. Frequently these students experience frustration trying to study histology slides outside of class.