Eric Carstens
"Using the web-based database we developed allows students to post results
of experiments
and TAs to immediately check the results and post the
data on-line for analysis."
How can we encourage students early in their programs to use the web as a tool for data analysis, rather than simply using the web as a static source of information? Eric Carstens of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology saw an opportunity for students to actually input data and enhance their learning by seeing how the data can be analyzed with the Internet. One of the wet labs in Micr221 includes the analysis of the effects of various antibiotics on the growth properties of bacteria. He reports, "We developed a web-based database, accessible through the Micr221 WebCT site, where students could input the raw results of their experiment in a standardize table, and those data were then immediately accessible by the graduate student TAs. The TAs could then check the results for all students (the course has over 350 students) and post the data for the students to analyze and answer questions associated with the laboratory exercise. The new electronic database eliminated the pieces of paper which were previous posted on a wall outside the lab and were frequently misplaced. We will continue to develop this database so that students may be able to analyze their data, in real time."
