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Excellence in Undergraduate Education Program
2000 Awards

EUE Abstracts - FY 00

Coordinator's Note: Abstracts of proposals funded in the FY 98 EUE Program are presented below. At total of 70 proposals were submitted; total requests were slightly over $680,000. Fourty-four proposals were funded for a total of about $345,000.

00-00
Rita Arras and Kay Mueggenburg, School of Nursing
Integrating Computer Technology into Community Health Nursing with BS Completion Students
Award Amount - $8,560

This proposed project seeks funding to integrate computer-related activities into Nursing 408, the community health theory course for BS Completion students. These adult learners are unfamiliar with computers and had not had computer-related content in other courses. These same students are likely to be in or to enter into management positions that require computer skills soon after graduation. Learner objectives include: communicating electronically, searching the WWW for current information, and critically evaluating the accuracy of the information located. Existing and emerging University technology support will be utilized by collaborating with the Faculty Technology Center. Funding is requested to support Project Directors salaries for one summer month to develop learner modules and convert existing materials to a suitable format for the Internet. Evaluation strategies will be expanded to measure student gain from the curriculum revision. Graduate Assistant support is also sought to assist Directors

To develop a Black Theater Workshop which will be open to all students who are interested in learning more about the history and performance of Black Theatre. This program will span the entire year and will include theatre workshops, script analysis, field trips to see Black Theatre, and student public performances. We will have several guest artiist seminars featuring prominent African-American theatre artists from the St. Louis and Illinois area. Also, I will encourage students to write their own plays, and I will give them an opportunity to have them produced through the workshop.

Students in the THEAll2a (Acting I) courses will be able to get credit for participating in the Black Theatre Workshop as actors, designers, or crew members. There are already several students from THEAll2a's Fall and Spring courses who are actively participating in the Black Theater Workshop in its current state.

Proposed is to undertake a performance and educational tour of England and France during Spring Break 2000. The tour will include four days in London and Five days in Paris. While in residence in these cities, the Wind Symphony will perform 4-5 academic and cultural exchange concerts with music colleagues from universities in these cities. In addition, the students will visit the great museums (i.e. the Louvre) and study the great works of art exhibited there.

This proposal is a request for funding to improve undergraduate teaching laboratories and research opportunities. A number of experiments, both in teaching laboratories and in individual faculty labs which engage undergraduate students in research, require DNA sequencing capabilities. Current options include use of radioisotopes (which we are trying to avoid), commercial DNA sequencing (removes much of the learning component from the sequencing experience), and silver staining (which has not been overly effective in our hands and which has limited throughput). Purchase of this fluorescence-based technology will not only allow students to have hands-on experiences with sequencing, but will introduce them to sequencing technology as used in the "real world" of genetic engineering.

Water quality is of paramount importance for a number of experiments. Many of these applications involve molecular biological approaches, but will also of benefit to a wide variety of disciplines, even some outside of Biology. It is our hope that by securing a consistent source of high quality water, undergraduate researchers, both in teaching labs and under the supervision of individual faculty members, will enjoy increased success with their experiments.

This proposal represents a coordinated departmental effort to enhance the two-dimensional undergraduate Art Studio curriculum, by introducing new methods of instruction through digitally-based techniques and materials specifically focused on the integration of major and minor concentrations in Drawing, Design, Illustration, Painting, Photography, Printmaking and Textile Arts.

Our request seeks to solve the two most significant problems that have previously prevented the incorporation of digital methods into studio arts, simply stated, the dual barriers of input and output.

Specifically, this proposal would provide the capability for a wide cross-section of students to input their visual images from a wide variety of sources by utilizing a single high-resolution, large-format, flat-bed scanner; a high-resolution film-scanner; or easy-to-use digital cameras.

Following digital integration the visual images would be output to a network-capable, high-resolution, ultra-large-format printer, capable of applying ink to a variety of specialized artist papers, films or canvas, enabling further manipulation with traditional studio techniques, materials and processes.

As the last of three EUE grants for the development of comprehensive programming in undergraduate nonprofit management education, the FY99-2000 EUE grant will: 1) facilitate final revision and submission of a New Program Request for an undergraduate academic program in Nonprofit Leadership and Administration. Approved by the faculty of the PAPA Department, the NEPR will be submitted for internal university review and approval followed by submission to the Illinois Board of Higher Education. 2) The EUE grant will facilitate continuing collaboration with the Office of Student Affairs for the development of related student volunteerism, leadership, and service learning programs. 3) The grant will permit completion of grant applications to the St. Louis Nonprofit Services Consortium and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for over $100,000 of start-up funding. 4) The grant will facilitate continued course development and initial offering of at least three new courses developed for the new program. 5) It will advance devel-opment of the American Humanics program and the American Humanics Student Associa-tion at SIUE, including hosting of the American Humanics Management Institute in St. Louis in January, 2000.

Proposal seeks funding for the Mass Communications Department's acquisition of an additional digital video editing station, replacing an obsolete analog editing station. In 1996, an EUE grant identical to this one was awarded to Mass Communications (Dr. Riley Maynard was project director), which assisted the department in its incremental analog to digital equipment replacement plan. This new computer-based editing station will be used extensively in eight different courses by virtually every Mass Communications major and graduate student. As well, this equipment will be used to edit video projects that Mass Communications faculty and students produce for departments across campus. Recent beneficiaries include the Dental School, the Departments of Nursing and Art & Design, the University Police, and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

A three year Archaeology Field School (ANTH 375-475) on the Eastern Shore of Virginia is proposed. The field school provides students with hands-on training in archaeological fieldwork and the experience of working and living in a different region and culture in the United States. Up to twelve students participate in an intensive eight week nine credit program learning archaeological methods and applying new skills outside of the classroom at an ongoing dig. Students are trained in standard and new technology-based methods in mapping, remote sensing, excavation, laboratory analysis, and artifact management. In addition to on-site work, instruction includes archival research, artifact seminars at Colonial Williamsburg and weekend trips to other sites and museums. A modern 500 acre farm known historically as a significant ~ century settlement area in Accomack County, Virginia provides the setting for this field experience. Pilot EUE funding and student fieldwork during the summer of 1998 has proven this area ideal for the program's objectives of on-site teaching and supervised student research on early colonial settlement. The Field School is a requirement for B.S. degree candidates in Anthropology and is also open to students who have interdisciplinary interests in other related academic fields. Students are immersed in practical research problem solving and also experience modem Virginia culture, as they work and live in a rural community that has a strong interest in local history and its interpretation.

The proposed project would provide structured activities and services for 30 male African American resident students This project would be a-collaborative effort of Special Services, University Housing, and Counseling Services and would focus on academic survival skills, self-esteem, realistic self-appraisal and goal setting, and cultural and personal development. In addition to the retention of the 30 participants, a goal of the project would be to identify program activities which have a significant positive impact on the retention of African American males in the University.

With growing pressure from ABET upon engineering schools to place greater emphasis on design, it is important that we provide our undergraduates with more hands-on design experience. With the help of a FY96 EUE, the Departmetn of Electrical and Computer Engineering now offers students a quick and easy way to create printed circuit boards for use in their senior design projects. Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) are used to connect electrical components together. Circuit assembly technology, however, is changing and the method of affixing the electrical components to the PCBs has changed dramatically over the past few years. While formerly components were pushed through holes in the board and then solderedto the underside of the PCB, today more and more components are available in "surface mount" packages. The dramatic decrease in the size of consumer electronics, laptop computers for example, is a direct consequence ot hte use of this new technology. Surface mount components are much smaller in size than their thru-hole conterparts, but special assembly equipment is required to affix the components to the top and/or bottom surface of the PCBs. To ensure that our students will have access to this newer and superior technology, we propose purchasing a surface mount/thru-hole assembly and repair station.

This project will partially find travel costs for 15 students and 3 faculty to complete an international, intergroup, interdisciplinary service learning course in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

This EUE proposal requests funds to assist in the development of a multi media interactive computer assisted instruction (CAI) program. This CAI will provide students with a learning environment in which they can more actively apply the concepts learned in SPPA 441 prior to their first practicum experience. This project will develop an extensive and innovative active learning medium for each of the major topic areas taught in SPPA 441 in the form of a CD-ROM. The production of the CD-ROM will be a collaborative effort between the project director and Steven Huffstuler from the Faculty Technology Center at SIUE. The CAI will incorporate competency based learning and problem based learning. Unlike passive observation, students will be able to respond to questions, test their understanding of concepts, refine their problem solving skills, and discover the outcomes of their decisions through this interactive medium.

The objective of this proposal is to acquire funding for 8 students and 3 faculty members to attend the American College Dance Festival during the academic year of 1999 - 2000.

At present, students in CI 200, Introduction to Education, are required to interview practicing teachers. For various reasons, these interviews are often cursory. It is proposed that CI 200 students will interview retired teachers by audio or video tape. These interviews will provide our students with wonderful primary sources of what it is to be a teacher. They will also provide the beginnings of an archive of the legends and lore of teaching in the present century. The tapes will be transcribed to computer disc and a web page established of these remembrances. The audio and/or video tapes will be archived, along with any other pertinent artifacts. This EUE Grant ~s seen as the seed money to establish a long term project to collect and preserve the careers of our retired colleagues.

The objective of this proposal is to improve our new engineering problem solving class, IE 106, offered to freshman engineering students in two major areas. The two areas identified for potential improvement are:

1) Linking reasoning skills to engineering problem solving methods: The acquisition of supporting videotapes on critical thinking in engineering and CD-ROM software on critical thinking techniques as applied to engineering problems can improve course content immensely.

2) Providing the necessary tools and equipment for engineering freshman to use in their class projects: The class projects can be significantly enhanced if a set of elementary tools and devices are provided. The project variety and challenge level is presently restricted due to unavailability of basic fabrication tools and devices.

Continuation of the Student Experimental Theater Organization (SETO) program: a program of dramatic works, dance concerts, musicals. and experimental productions developed and staffed by students who may or may not be majoring or minoring in the Department of Theater and Dance.

SETO annually produces 4-5 productions, some with no admission charge. Each of these productions is given four performances, affording an opportunity for an audience of around three hundred, mostly SIU students. The cost for one season runs around $4000: half for commodities and half for contractual services. Box office income averages around $1500 for the season. We are requesting $2000 to help meet the cost.

This project will include four teleconferences, where business executives in foreign countries will speak to SIUE students about the challenges of doing business in these countries. Students will have the opportunity to ask questions and otherwise interact with the speakers. The project builds upon other projects that have been successfully implemented by this faculty team to use SIUE's telecommunications infrastructure and staff to broaden the international experience of our business students. We will work with faculty in our sister schools to identify business speakers. Courses that could benefit from this type of activity include management, economics and marketing classes. We anticipate that a minimum of 250 students would benefit from the project.

The purpose of this proposal is to provide support materials and a brochure for University 112. No budgetary support for University 112, the freshman transition course, has been provided with the exception of $500 per faculty and staff (not on administrative appointment) who teach the course and $75 per section for an out-of-classroom group activity. (Paid by the office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.) Since no printed materials exist to introduce new students and their parents to the values of enrolling in the course, this proposed project would remedy the deficiency. Printed materials would also assist advisers in encouraging students to enroll in the course. Also, if funded, this proposal would provide support for printing instructor and course evaluations, assessment tools, and instructional materials.

This project will provide support for a Chancellor's Colloquium to be offered, through four interdisciplinary seminar sessions, to honor students in the following groups: Chancellor's Scholars, Deans' Scholars, Provost Scholars, Johnetta Haley Scholars, Residence Hall Scholars, Phi Eta Sigma members, and Phi Kappa Phi student members. Approximately 500 honor students will be invited to participate in this series. Sessions will be offered by faculty and staff with expertise in the chosen topics, who have been recognized for their teaching excellence, and who will include significant amounts of discussion. Readings will be provided to students to prepare them for each session. Those who complete at least three sessions will be recognized and awarded certificates of completion.

For the fifth consecutive year, we have entered an undergraduate team in the International collegiate Business Policy Competition. In the competition, the student team manages a computer-simulated business which competes with other teams from other universities in a simulated industry. In managing the business, students are required to apply knowledge gained in overall management which is required by the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration Program (BSBA). As such, the competition creates active learning and helps students integrate formal education with practical experience for their future. At the same time, this experience attains the goals of the BSBA Program. Team members' learning from, and performance in, the competition therefore provide a good assessment of the participation in the competition, and indirectly, an assessment of overall education in the BSBA Program. Because of this, we hope to enter a team each year since different students (chosen from the current senior class) make up the team each year.

Based on changes in the health care delivery system and the role of the nurse in today's society, it is essential that undergraduate nursing programs provide a curriculum that addresses these challenges. The undergraduate nursing curriculum is in need of a revision to address the essential topics discussed by major nursing organizations (e.g. the American Association of Colleges of Nursing) and nursing leaders in both didactic and clinical instruction.

This proposal requests EUE funding for 1/3 of the cost for up to 40 undergraduate students to attend the 39th Annual Student Marketing Conference to be held in February 2000 at the Holiday Inn Westport in St. Louis. Each student will be required to fund 1/3 of the fee, and the SIUE Marketing Association will fund the final third. The conference provides a unique experience for SIUE students from all disciplines to interact with business professionals from local and national companies and college students from at least eight surrounding states. This conference is an excellent means to strengthen SIUE' s reputation among the St. Louis business community which opens doors for internships and job opportunities for our students.

Funds for equipment relating to Thermodynamics are requested. Demonstration equipment, such as a thermoelectric converter and a Stirling engine, will be used in the "Thermodynamics" section of the Physical Chemistry Lecture course (Chem 361a). This equipment will be used to demonstrate how electricity can be generated by a temperature differential, and conversely, that a temperature differential is essential for extracting usable energy. A heat engine/gas law apparatus will be used in the Physical Chemistry Laboratory course (Chem 365a), to conduct student experiments on adiabatic and isothermal expansions/contractions. This equipment should help students better understand and give them hands-on experience with these concepts in Thermodynamics.

This proposal is for two, twelve-week verbal and expressive arts student support groups that will address undergraduate residential student adjustment issues. The groups will begin 2 weeks after the semester begins and end 2 weeks before final week, fall and spring semesters. The groups will be run by a therapist from the Counseling Center who is experienced in group process and co-lead by a Registered Art Therapist from the community. This group will address the special needs of the traditional and nontraditional residential students by recognition of difficulties, enhancement of strengths and facilitation of communication and creativity. The skills developed in this group can be incorporated into the students' daily lives and thus enhance their university experience. A pre and post evaluation provided to the participants (with consent) will quantify and measure success. Students will also use the arts component for stress reduction. Measured results may be used to study the effects of an arts group for the university student.

It is essential for our graduates entering the job market to have been exposed to modern laboratory techniques. The software package LabVIEW by National Instruments is quickly becoming the standard data acquisition software used in research laboratories. This program is a graphical based programming language designed specifically for computer data acquisition.

To use the current version of the LabVIEW new computers and data acquisition boards are required. I am requesting funding to purchase data acquisition boards and software for the Intermediate Physics Laboratory course. CAS has agreed to fund the four new computer required.

The portable, handheld Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions (EOAEs) represents the state-of-the-art instrumentation to objectively and noninvasively assess the status of the inner ear cochlea. Diagnostic judgments, patient referrals, and management interventions are made with greater reliability and validity when the ECAEs evaluation is considered. The EOAEs instrument employs a handheld miniature probe assembly which can be inserted into the neonates and infants ear canals. Sound stimulation through a probe speaker initiates mechanical disturbances in the inner ear cochlea which propagates outward from the cochlea into the external ear canal where it can is detected with a sensitive probe microphone. The EOAEs instrument provides a reliable and cost-effective method of Identifying neonates and infants with hearing loss. Solid foundation and valuable hands-on-experience using the portable ECAES instrument would positively strengthen the quality of our undergraduate program and surely facilitate in the early detection and intervention of hearing loss before 12 months of age.

The Department of Psychology intends to add a 400-level course entitled Applied Clinical Psychology. This course was taught in a "pilot" format as PSYC 495 in Fall 1998. One of the primary aims of the course is to teach basic clinical skills involved in psychotherapy and clinical interviewing. Such skills can be addressed somewhat by textbooks and class discussions, but the acquisition of such skills necessitates student-active learning such as role-play activities in which psychology students observe the instructor playing the role of a clinician or play the role of clinicians themselves. These teaching techniques raise the question: Who will play the client? It is proposed that the clients be played by SIUE Theater students who register for this experience as a Special Projects course in the Theater and Dance Department (THEA 190, 290, 390, 490, or 590) and be supervised by appropriate faculty members. This teaching format offers both psychology and theater students a forum to practice their respective skills in a mutually beneficial way. All fictional interviews and therapy sessions in which a "clinician" (psychology instructor or student) interacts with a "client" (theater student) would be videotaped, and these tapes would be retained in the Psychology Department Resource Center where they would be made available to faculty teaching related courses, thus potentially improving the education of hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students.

This proposal seeks re-assigned time and student wages to develop a computerized approach to linguistic skill courses, English 369 and English 409. The duration of the project will be one semester. Three project stages are envisioned, each designed to review, select and implement a computer program allowing students to exercise their analytic skills with respect to the English language in a more insightful and fluid manner than provided at present by existing blackboard and paper pedagogy. Evaluation of the project will involve a range of indices, some grounded to explicit comparison between student performance in the present board and paper format and the proposed computer format Implementation will be scheduled for Fall 00 and will affect English majors, linguistic minors and students in general education.

The aim of this project is to improve the quality of learning in the general education course, Chem 111 (Contemporary Chemistry). The purpose is to introduce hands-on experiments through integrated and interactive studies using molecular models and computer software. Since this course is taught without laboratory experiments, the goal is to make chemistry more real and to make abstract concepts more understandable and interesting to students. Simulating chemical reactions and demonstrating molecular structures in three dimensions with the use of computer software and molecular models will impact and benefit approximately 240 SIUE students each year. This proposal involves many students and should provide improvements in general education outcomes and retention.

Female, African-American, and Hispanic students are under-represented in science and engineering classrooms, and in the workplace. The proposed project will fund a series of "Careers in Science workshops to be held on Saturday mornings. These workshops will feature area scientists and engineers who are members of these under-represented groups. The speakers will be asked to address several topics: formal and informal education requirements for their careers; what responsibilities are connected to their careers; and other pertinent information. By hosting speakers from under-represented groups, we provide role models for our students, and we educate all of our students about the realities of these science and engineering careers. Role models and information are two important factors of any successful recruitment and retention programs, especially those that deal with under-represented groups. A pilot program with limited funding was sponsored by the Department of Physics, the College of Arts and Science, and the Assistant Provost for Social and Cultural Diversity, and has been completed with favorable results. The successful completion of this proposed project will be the basis for external funding grant proposals.

Electrochemistry is taught at many levels of the chemical curriculum. This attention is appropriate given the importance of electrochemistry in our society. Corrosion, the refining of aluminum, the preparation of Nylon, the production of caustic soda and chlorine are a few of the many vital economic activities which rely on an understanding of electrochemistry.

It is often overlooked that most of the "action" occurs at the solid-solution interface, partly because of the difficulty in visualizing the complex interactions between the electrode and various species in solution. Hence students often leave with an inadequate understanding of these industrially-important phenomena. "DigiSim," a simulation package available from BioAnalytical Systems Inc. can graphically display the dynamic changes that occur at electrode surfaces. This software can be implemented in classroom demonstrations, in undergraduate laboratories, and in undergraduate research projects. This project will impact on approximately 200 students during the 1999-2000 academic year.

A major component of the project is to convert the large base of Macintosh format files, pertaining to GEOG 111 course materials, to a format that can be used to construct internet web pages. The web pages constructed will greatly enhance and enrich GEOG 111 and other geography courses. Integrating the resources of the internet into geography courses will benefit students in various ways, including keeping course content current, increasing student interest, moving beyond the time constraints of the classroom, expanding opportunities for exploration of the subject matter, and development of skills involving the use of technology. Course components that will be made available on the internet include class notes, syllabi, exercises, handouts, and sample tests. Another goal of the project is to more effectively give students the opportunity to incorporate faculty research and travel experiences into their own learning. Finally, a third dimension of the project is to offer information concerning the development of internet based teaching resources to any faculty member interested in developing their own web based course components.

In the proposed project, students will continue using and creating visualization models which illustrate scientific concepts. With World Wide Web technologies such as three-dimensional graphics and Java programming, realistic and interactive simulation models can be created. Visual, working models of semiconductors aid students in ECE 326 when studying solid-state devices such as diodes. The project will concentrate on giving senior-level students from several disciplines the opportunity to create models that demonstrate concepts from their areas of expertise. This experience will involve the students in a multidisciplinary effort in which they will learn new skills as well as provide graphical tools that will help future students visualize complex engineering or scientific concepts. Some models will be adapted to allow stereoscopic viewing using a specialized projection system. We will investigate the educational utility of the realism that actual depth perception can provide for these models.

This proposal request is for support to sponsor four musical performances by SIUE students at the JAVA Cafe in the Morris University Center. The performance will occur the last Friday night of each month during Spring Semester 2000. The faculty of the Department of Music, the staff of the Alcohol and Other Drug Program and the staff of the Morris University Center will collaborate to achieve the desired goals of this project. Responsibility for selection and performance will be assumed by the Department of Music. JAVA' n' JAZZ will provide a means for students to acquire performing experience. The Morris University Center will assume responsibility for staging. Marketing will be the responsibility of the Alcohol & Other Drug Program. Funding will provide needed alternative activities, which students have requested, especially on weekends. The Music Department will also benefit from a graduate assistantship by their assistance in the promotion of music events and performing needed library functions.

The School of Nursing currently offers a baccalaureate program for basic students and a baccalaureate completion program for registered nurses (RN) students, for a combined total of 315 students; The BS completion program is offered not only on the Edwardsville campus, but is also delivered across the lower one-third of the state and encompasses 52 counties at six separate sites. This exciting opportunity to extend undergraduate education in nursing to under-served areas of the state brings with it an urgent need to develop learning opportunities in a distance education format. Delivery of the courses to these areas has been problematic, relying on faculty travel or the compressed video format. With the increasing competition for costly airtime and expense of faculty travel, additional strategies for distance learning are needed. The use of the internet as a teaching tool not only provides for an innovative mechanism for the delivery of content, but also an opportunity to extend faculty expertise in a real-time manner to all students, regardless of their location. In addition, this technology will allow the collaboration between those students located in rural areas of the state with their urban peers on campus. This project will involve the conversion of selected portions of required nursing courses to an Internet format for the purpose of improving student learning, enhancing student computer literacy skills, and facilitating interaction between diverse student groups.

Looms with the capacity to respond directly to the computer software which we are currently using for weave structure designing, would provide the Textile Design program access to fairly new but widely used technology. This direct improvement in our technical currency will be a crucial tool toward achieving my goals of offering highly creative and technologically advanced course work.

The introduction of technological innovations into the undergraduate curriculum presents an ongoing and vital need. Computer aided instruction (CAI) is an innovation with the following benefits: students are active participants rather than passive recipients, students can work at their own pace, computerized study guides can provide immediate feedback, and others. The goal of this project is to develop and integrate the use of a CD-ROM developed specifically for Psychology 431. Funds requested will support the development of the CD-ROM, the purchase of some necessary equipment, and travel to a Psychology Teaching Institute. Once the material is developed for the CD-ROM, the same process can be used for other psychology courses in a more streamlined and cost-effective manner.

Perhaps the best way to demonstrate to students the link between economic theory and the real world is through class discussions on topics such as poverty, welfare reform and the student loan system. This project would facilitate these discussions by allowing us to purchase a group of 16 Economic Policy Videos from the National Economists Club. Each video lasts one hour, and features a panel discussion with a group of well-known economists and policy makers. We feel that this will be especially beneficial to the hundreds of students from disciplines outside of Economics that take Econ 111, 112, 327 and 331 each semester.

Students need modes of instruction that are suitable for the increased emphasis on active learning, problem solving, applications and higher-order thinking skills. Laboratory assistants will enhance the quality of instruction in our efforts to incorporate technology.

In November 1998, we submitted a grant to the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop a speech and hearing laboratory. A piece of equipment included in the grant was a Nasometer (Kay Elemetrics, Inc.).This instrumentation measures nasal acoustic energy during speech. Currently, we lack this instrumentation (a) to teach principles of vocal tract resonance in the basic science undergraduate curriculum and (b) for students to learn the clinical application of these principles with clients who have resonance difficulties (e.g., as a result of cleft palate).

The improvement to the Computer Vision and Image Processing (CVIP) Laboratory is proposed to support the enhancement of the computer imaging demonstrations on our web site, to assist students working on research and projects in the imaging area, and to support improvements to our SIUE-developed computer imaging software. The web site enhancement is a continuation of a previously funded EUE project. The enhancement of the computer imaging software will expand the students' potential to explore computer imaging concepts. The improvement created by these developments, extending the existing capabilities of the SIUE CVIP Laboratory and web site, will enhance the laboratory experience for undergraduates and also help to encourage them to become involved in computer imaging applications research.

Modern science is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary in nature. One emerging field is "materials science", a broad, chemically oriented view of solids that results from the combined viewpoints of chemistry, physics, engineering, and for biomaterials, the biological sciences. Although chemistry plays a central role in materials science, there has been relatively little materials chemistry in traditional undergraduate chemistry courses. In 1993, the interdisciplinary Ad Hoc Committee for Solid-State Instructional Materials published Teaching General Chemistry: A Materials Science Companion, a superb resource for adding materials activities to the chemistry curriculum. This proposal seeks funds to introduce six materials-related experiments from the Companion into undergraduate chemistry laboratory courses at SIUE. This project will impact on approximately 500 students per semester during the 1999-2000 academic year.

Members of the highly acclaimed Arkansas Repertory Theater will perform at SIUE as part of the 1999-2000 Arts & Issues series. The proposed project will keep them on campus for an extra day to conduct two workshops: 1. Producing Theater Prom the Inside Out, and 2. The Blues - Background, Biographies, and Contemporary Impact. The first workshop will involve the Rep's production staff on tour to discuss the process of building a production from ground zero, from securing the script rights to a specific play to selecting a director, from initial design meetings to final dress rehearsal, from opening through closing night and strike. This workshop will be tailored to the SIUE students who are part of the Student Experimental Theater Organization (SETO). The second workshop will involve the actors presenting a participatory workshop on the Blues. Starting with a discussion of the various historical influences, both cultural and musical, from the work chants in West Africa to the spirituals of the early American slave states, the Company members will lead the students who are members of the SIUE Gospel Chorus through various musical forms that ultimately became known as the Blues. Both student groups would be expected to incorporate their lessons into their class work, as they prepare for upcoming productions and would be evaluated by their instructors.