Randolph-Macon College is committed to the continual enhancement of our curriculum in order to provide an educational environment where students receive the maximum benefit from their experience. Our faculty continually implement enhancements in our science curriculum that cause both our science majors and non-science majors to be more engaged in their learning and become more deeply committed to their exploration and understanding of the sciences.
New equipment in the sciences will be instrumental in continuing the success of this hands-on exploratory teaching. A sampling of these needed tools includes:
- New and updated classroom microscopes, both dissecting (<300x mag) and compound (up to 1000x mag) with some being enabled for digital photography to support investigation allowing students to collect images
- A single crystal X-ray diffractometer with a charge-coupled detector used to determine the solid state structure (crystal structure) of chemical compounds
- 25 scribbler robots to support a new computer science course
- A stream table, providing the opportunities for students to analyze and model how streams flow through a watershed and witness changes that occur to a stream as a function of both natural and anthropogenic alterations
The College has identified the need of $3,000,000 in new laboratory equipment to support curriculum enhancements.