U.S. Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan Use Online Science Labs

New patented technology provides lab experience for Troy State University distance learning students including remotely posted soldiers. For the first time, these students can perform real data collection from real experiments and learn to think like scientists online.

Hermosa Beach, CA -- Troy State University has chosen ParaComps patented Smart Science education system to provide laboratory experience to its distance learning students around the world. The Troy State University Fort Benning campus includes soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq among its students. During each of its two-month terms, 150 students enroll in the schools distance learning science courses. Troy State University has four campuses in the state of Alabama and over fifty locations world-wide. Until now, no satisfactory online method of providing lab experience was available.

After an online live demonstration of the capabilities of Smart Science education and reviewing several of its 75 laboratories, the Troy State University science faculty recommended using Smart Science labs for distance learning courses. Dr. Judy McCarley, Associate Director for Academics Fort Benning Campus, approved the decision, and the first labs will be delivered this month.

Smart Science labs will be used in courses teaching earth science, chemistry and biology.

According to Dr. Harry Keller, President of ParaComp, Inc., Smart Science labs fit perfectly with the demands of distance learning. He said, The ability to do real science on a remote computer provides a key ingredient for remote science learning. We're looking forward to expanding the number of courses and the number of labs used by each course. Our modular software allows each professor to tailor the learning experience to specific classes."

The science areas covered by Smart Science labs include data analysis, periodic motion, waves, electricity, speed and acceleration, statics, biology, heat, sound, earth science and chemistry.

Troy State professors using the system include Virginia June Tieken, Gerald Marano and Dennis Mitchell. Each professor has selected specific Smart Science labs to enrich course curricula. Students log in to ParaComp's server to reach accounts set up for each class. A Java applet provides the display and interaction required to make the lab experience come alive for each student.

Because students can do labs on their own schedule, redo any experiment repeatedly and require only an online computer to run the labs, the Troy State faculty expect this new service to work well with students who are far from Fort Benning, Georgia and other Troy State University campuses.

ParaComps Smart Science labs use real experiments to teach students to observe phenomena, collect data, and select and test hypotheses as they work to identify the principles involved. Because they are delivered in volume, the cost for an experiment can be as low as pennies for each student.

For more information on Smart Science, see http://www.smartscience.net.

The Smart Science backgrounder is at http://www.smartscience.net/news/Backgrounder.html.

ParaComp's web site is at http://www.paracompusa.com.

Troy States web site is at http://www.troyst.edu. The web site for the Fort Benning campus is at http://www.tsufb.edu.