Writing-Intensive Multimedia Projects in the Instrumental Methods Course

摘要

Recent articles in this Journal highlight the efficacy of a wide range of writing in promoting student learning(1-9).In designing effective writing assignments,we note two empirical premises:(i)students often write more clearly when they have a clear idea of the audience for their work and(ii)students can be highly motivated to write well when that audience is someone other than the instructor with a real,compelling interest in the information conveyed.Over the last few years we have built upon these two premises in developing short,intensive technical writing assignments within the production of multimedia as a vehicle to further student understanding of instrumental methods of analysis.As a result,teams of students in the instrumental methods course produce multimedia for the Harvey Mudd College instrumentation bay(10).