Lehigh University
Personal Science Laboratory

The IBM Personal Science Laboratory is a primary focus of the IBM Teacher 
Preparation Grant at Lehigh University.   Lynn Columba is the principal 
investigator and project director.  The Personal Science Laboratory system 
is currently being used in elementary and secondary science methods 
courses, both to introduce students to computerized lab tools and methods, 
and as a tool for:

    -- introducing teachers to the concepts and the means needed to 
       develop their own hands-on, open-ended experiments, and

    -- incorporating cognitive materials in chemistry and physics into 
       methods courses, and in applications in engineering.

The range of topics covered in these courses includes simple machines, 
harmonic motion, acid/base chemistry, thermal effects of chemical 
reactions, reaction kinetics, properties of light, equilibrium concepts, 
force balances, friction, energy conservation, and heat transfer by 
conduction, convection and radiation.

The Personal Science Laboratory  is also used in the secondary math 
methods course as a demonstration tool to illustrate connections between 
mathematics and the physical world.  For example, one demonstration used 
in conjunction with a lesson dealing with exponentials involves the 
decrease in temperature of a hot object exposed to a constant external 
temperature. 

The use of the Personal Science Laboratory has proven so effective in 
current applications that integration of this tool is being planned for 
all  science and math education methods courses at Lehigh.  A doctoral 
student in education is basing her dissertation on the development of 
experiments, and use of evaluation tools to determine the instructional 
effectiveness of the Personal Science Laboratory.   Other research 
students in science, mathematics, and engineering at Lehigh will also be 
participating in these efforts, developing applications which address a 
range of grade levels from kindergarten through university courses.

For more information about using the Personal Science Laboratory, contact: 
Lynn Columba, Ph.D.
College of Education
Lehigh University
Mountaintop Campus
111 Research Drive
Bethlehem, PA 18015
(215) 758-5423
.