Science Blog

Interactive Animations: "Carnegie Mellon's Office of Technology for Education and Department of Biological Sciences create multimedia materials for teaching and learning Biology. After an analysis of a number of Biology courses was performed to identify when and how shared concepts where taught, a team of biologists, media programmers, and learning experts came together to create animations designed to improve understanding of some of the main concepts taught in Modern Biology and Biochemistry."

Biology Labs: "This collaboration has advanced from the creation of classroom teaching/explanation tools to the creation of tools that can be used for student directed learning and to provide authentic assessment of concepts.

The earliest of these was the Protein Purification Lab which allows the instructor to provide the student with a virtual lab experience where they can be given a unique solution in a beaker and asked to develop a purification scheme to obtain some protein in its pure form. The results of their work can be submitted to the instructor for grading.

In addition, we are developing simulation environments that facilitate multiple, linked representations of concepts to be used in different learning contexts. They will allow guided inquiry as well as student directed experimentation and data analysis. These environments can be used as stand alone teaching tools as well as becoming part of the interactive components of an online Modern Biology being created in the OLI system."

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http://www.growingknowledge.bl.uk/

How will research change and evolve in the 21st century? It's a broad question, and the British Library has created this website to offer insight into the world of innovative research tools. First-time visitors will want to watch the video on the homepage that features commentary by various scholars and professionals on "The Modern Library", "Information Overload", and "Digital Research". All of the offerings on the website complement an existing in situ exhibit that includes multimedia research stations and a "collaborative zone". In the "Start Researching" area of the site, visitors can look at standout examples of recent collaborative digital projects that push the contemporary boundaries of research. Further along, visitors shouldn't miss the "Tools" area which brings together high-quality online tools that can make the research process much easier and streamlined. Finally, the site is rounded out by a range of social media tools that users can use to stay on top of the latest posts and materials added to this site. [KMG]

"UCT is the only South African university ranked among the world’s top 200 by the Times ranking, which published its 2010 rankings yesterday." Sue Blaine. Business Day 

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