It also provides a forum for exercises that put basic principles into practices. Orville Chapman of the University of California, Los Angeles, believes that the key to success of this type of learning is the responsibility it gives the student. Frank Hinerman, a teacher at Mt. Lebanon Senior High School in western Pennsylvania, captured on videotape his students reactions to a computer laboratory. The goal is to teach biology. Computers have changed the way he teaches, he said, resulting in more cooperative learning and greater student involvement.
Computers provide a great way to have students learn together.
At the University of California, San Diego, Barbara Sawrey and Gabriele Weinhausen developed computer software to help high-school students master the experimental techniques and calculations that they will need to conduct research in a wet lab. The university brings high-school students into a computer lab for six to eight weeks during the summer. There, they use software that simulates the techniques they will use in the wet lab. The software introduces students to chromatography, extraction, and precipitation. It also offers information on calculations required for the lab.