Local School Technology Resources

Dave Stone, University Laboratory High School, Urbana, IL.

Activity 1c, C&I 335, Summer, 1998.

University Laboratory High School Technology Resources Available to Biology Classes

Schoolwide Technology Resources

As the public laboratory high school of the University of Illinois, we are not affiliated with the local Champaign or Urbana School Districts. Thus, hardware and software resources available to students and staff are limited to those housed in the four buildings occupying the high school grounds. Use of computers in administrative and department offices is limited to faculty and staff working in those respective offices. Students, as well as faculty and staff, have access to the Macintosh Laboratory (Room 115) and the IBM Laboratory (Room 314). Additionally, software and hardware recently purchased by the Science Department through contributed funds are available to students who have obtained instructor consent.

Hardware

Biology Lab (Room 301) - Always available.

27" Toshiba Color TV (CF27F30), Toshiba VCR (M-661), RCA Double-sided Laserdisc Player (LDR-600).

6 Power Macintosh 5400/120 computers (1.1 GB HD, 48 MB RAM, 8X CD-ROM Drive). Each of these computers has System 7.5.3, Microsoft Office (Version 4.2.1), Netscape Navigator 3.0, NCSA Telnet 2.7b4, Sound Manager 3.1 and Fetch 3.0.

I also have single copies of STELLA II, Ray Dream Studio 5, Adobe Premiere 4.2, Adobe Photoshop 3.0 , Adobe After Effects 3.2 and ClarisWorks 3.0, as well as a 1.1 GB Generic Macintosh External HD and an Iomega Zip Drive.

Chemistry Lab (Room 303) - Available with prior arrangement.

27" Toshiba Color TV (CF27F30), Toshiba VCR (M-661), Pioneer Video Disc Player (LD-V6010).

Science Printing Room (Room 308) - Always available.

Macintosh Performa 6214CD (240 MB HD, 16 MB RAM), Apple Multiple Scan 15 Display. Software includes System 7.5.3, Netscape Navigator 3.0, Quicken 5.0, MS Word 6.0.1 and STELLA II.

All of the computers above (Biology Lab, Chemistry Lab and Room 308) are networked to an H-P LaserJet 5M.

Science Office (Room 309) - Available with prior arrangement.

Macintosh IIx (75 MB HD, 8 MB RAM), Apple Multiple Scan 15 Display, Hewlett-Packard 550C Color Inkjet. Software includes System 7.0.1, MS Word 5.0a, MS Excel 4.0, MS Works 2.0, Norton Utilities 2.0, ResEdit 2.1, HyperCard 2.1 and NCSA/BYU Telnet 2.5.

Macintosh Lab (Room 115) - Available with prior arrangement.

1 Power Macintosh 6100/60 (160 MB HD, 24 MB RAM ), 2 Macintosh 6214 CDs (1.1 GB HD, 24 MB RAM), 6 Power Macintosh 7100/80 (750 MB HD, 24 MB RAM), 1 Power Macintosh 8500/150 (1.2 GB HD, 32 MB HD).

Each of these computers has System 7.5.3, Microsoft Office (Version 4.2.1), Page Maker 5.0, Adobe Photo Shop 3.0, Netscape Navigator 3.0, NCSA Telnet 2.7b4, Sound Manager 3.1 and Fetch 3.0.

1 Radius Full Page Monitor, 7 Apple Multiple Scan 15 Displays , 1 Apple Multiple Scan 15-AV Display, 1 Apple LaserWriter II, 1 LaserWriter 16/600 PS, 1 Polaroid SprintScan.

IBM Lab (Room 314) - Available with prior arrangement.

The IBM Lab is scheduled for significant update at this point, though it is neither clear at this time how many machines will be purchased, nor do we know what the specifications for those machines will be. My understanding is that all of the existing machines will be replaced within the next two months. Greg Smith, the school's Technology Coordinator, will be making those decisions later this summer.

Software

Adobe After Effects 3.2 - Specialized software oriented toward video production efforts. Main uses are compositing, dazzling effects, and 2D animations. It has some rendering capabilities, though it doesn't appear to have the full array of capabilities found in Ray Dream Studio 5.

Adobe Page Maker 5.0 - High end professional page layout software. Definite learning curve required prior to one being able to use it at even a basic level.

Adobe Page Mill 2.0 - Allows one to easily create web pages which are fairly sophisticated, as well as link web pages and manage a fairly simple web site. Nice tutorial. Easy and quick to learn.

Adobe Photoshop 3.0 - High end graphic production tool. Abounds with features, though those who are so oriented can learn quite a bit after going through the tutorial.

Adobe Premiere 4.2 - Digital video editing software with many fairly high end production features. This is the main package that we use in the production of our school's ExploraVision videos.

ClarisWorks 3.0 - similar to MS Works 2.0 , which is reviewed below. Each of the components is more updated than those found in MS Works 2.0, though files remain relatively small and, best of all, it runs on older Macs as well as Power PCs.

Fetch 3.0 - Utility software which allows for rapid transfer of files between machines. I suspect that we will be using it quite a bit for uploading of html documents to the server throughout the next two years. Easy to use.

HyperCard 2.1 - A utility that used to be packaged with all Macs. This application allows one to do some basic development of information/resources, called stacks, without any prior programming experience.

Microsoft Office (Version 4.2.1) - Includes Microsoft Word (the standard in medium to high-end word processing, based on my experience), MS Excel (the standard in business and scientific application spreadsheets, with significant graphing capabilities), MS PowerPoint (slide show presentation software) and MS Mail (a mail program that I have never used - I'm an avid Eudora user). All are very nice, though they require a high amount of RAM, take up quite a bit of hard drive space and run only on Power PCs.

MS Works 2.0 - An old integrated application package which includes word processor, spreadsheet, database and communication modules. I think it is fairly well integrated. The entire application fits on a single floppy and full page documents take up only 3k, allowing you to squeeze an entire school year's work onto a single floppy. Doesn't run on Power PCs, to the best of my knowledge...

NCSA Telnet 2.7b4 - Public domain software that allows individuals to connect to other machines throughout the world. A knowledge of some UNIX is required to utilize its capabilities beyond reading mail.

Netscape Navigator 3.0 - Internet browsing software that allows virtually everyone to cruise the Web. Second generation software that replaced NCSA Mosaic, an innovative (at the time), though frequently buggy first generation browser.

Norton Utilities 2.0 - An excellent product that allows one to optimize floppy and hard drive performance, as well as recover lost or corrupted files. I've had to use it more than I'd like, though it's been wonderful to have on hand when needed.

Ray Dream Studio 5 - 3D animation program with an excellent tutorial. Allows individuals to produce complex animations. Rendering may take several days for the more complex animations, though the product is clearly worth the time and effort. We used this package in the production of this year's ExploraVision video, resulting in beautifully rendered footage of movement of red blood cells and nanomachines through a blood vessel, as well as movement of substances across cell membranes.

ResEdit 2.1 - Allows one to modify features of various components of Macintosh system software. I've never tried it, in part due to my concern that I'd mess something up...

Sound Manager 3.1 - Allows one to work with various sounds on the Macintosh. Different versions differ significantly in the degree to which they allow modification.

STELLA II - Modeling software used by people in diverse areas ranging from the sciences to sociology to economics. Steep learning curve. An excellent quantitative understanding of relationships within systems to be examined is essential for actual model construction. On the other hand, a number of excellent models are available with the software and there are many web sites which have information to enter directly into STELLA II, allowing you to use models other people have developed as part of their academic research.

System 7.5.3 - Software which allows the user to experience the Macintosh interface as we know it. Regularly modified, the greatest modifications result in a change of the first number. Smaller scale changes in the operating system result in an increase in the second digit and very small-scale changes, often nothing more than patches to fix an existing problem, result in a change in the third digit.

System 8 - Newest version of Macintosh system software, we just put it on one of the machines, so I will be able to say more about it later.

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Last updated on June 16, 1998