AN EDUCATIONAL DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEM FOR USE IN SECONDARY SCIENCE COURSES

CREARE WILL DESIGN A COMPLETE EDUCATIONAL DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEM (EDAS) THAT INDCLUDES INSTRUMENTATION, HARDWARE, AND SOFTWARE FOR A SERIES OF EXPERIMENTS TO BE RUN ON MICROCOMPUTERS IN SECONDARY SCHOOL SCIENCE LABORATORIES. IN ITS SIMPLEST FORM, THIS SYSTEM WILL PROVIDE THE TEACHER AND STUDENTS A GENERAL PURPOSE "LINKAGE" BETWEEN PHYSICAL PROCESSES AND A MICROCOMPUTER. HOWEVER, THE SYSTEM WILL ALSO CONTAIN SPECIALLY DESIGNED EXPERIMENTS TO TEACH PHYSICAL CONCEPTS TO THE STUDENT USING SIMPLIFIED FORMS OF REAL-LIFE SITUATIONS ENCOUNTERED BY PROFESSIONAL SCIENTISTS,ENGINEERS AND PROGRAMMERS. THE EXPERIMENTS WILL EMPHASIZE FUNDAMENTALS SUCH AS THE CORRECT WAY TO TAKE MEASUREMENTS, CONTROL EXPERIMENTS AND EVALUATE EXPERIMENTAL UNCERTAINTY. USING THE COMPUTER TO RECORD EXPERIMENTAL DATA ALSO INCREASES STUDENT INTEREST, AND THE EDAS WILL EXPLOIT THIS INTEREST THROUGH INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE AND SEQUENCED STAGES OF TASKS OF INCREASING DIFFICULTY. THE EDAS WILL CHALLENGE GIFTED STUDENTS AND EXPOSE ALL STUDENTS TO MARKETABLE TECHNICAL SKILLS. OF MAJOR CONCERN IN THE DESIGN OF THE SYSTEM IS THAT IT APPLY TO PHYSICAL CONCEPTS BEING TAUGHT IN THE SECONDARY SCIENCE CLASSROOM, FOSTER EXCELLENCE AND INTEREST IN THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES, BE MODULARIZED SO IT CAN EASILY ADAPT TO A VARIETY OF EXPERIMENTS AND KINDS OF MEASUREMENTS, AND BE LOW COST AND EASY TO USE.