Client-side methods are good for developing practice exercises or adding interactivity to individual web pages. Java can produce sophisticated presentations or simulations but requires some proficiency at programming. Server-side methods are needed to access a database or log student usage or answers. Lecture and lab are integrated closely. Students work in lab groups of 2 or 3.
Students take turns being the group leader.
The group leader develops a detailed work plan before lab and writes an experimental summary before the group leaves lab. Higher-level skills are stressed in a capstone team project that replaces the final exam in the lecture part of the course. Most final projects have been a proposal to sample and characterize a Superfund site in eastern Virginia. The first lab is a statistics lab to get everyone up to speed with Excel. The student groups then cycle through a set of three or four experiments in a four week sequence.