Computers
in teaching
I have been involved in developing
computer software for teaching use for the last 25 years, beginning with a Teletype
terminal connected via the Hospital switchboard to a distant mainframe, then
graduating via the Acorn BBC micro to modern PCs. During this time we have progressed
from the days when I used to bring my own computer in from home for the students
to use, through a set of 8088 PCs that were kept in cupboards under the benches
in the teaching laboratory, and had to be lifted out and set up each week, to
the present luxury of having my software available for teaching on networked
PCs campus-wide and some accessible on the web.
I have written the following programs:
- The
Foods You Eat: a program for food and nutrition studies, based
on UK food composition tables and using the same foods as in "Food Tables
and Labelling" (A.E.Bender & D.A.Bender, Oxford University Press,
Oxford, 1999). You can download a trial version of this program (with deliberate
errors in the database) from the link on the left.
- Food
composition: a program for food and nutrition studies, based
on US food composition tables. You can download a trial version of this program
(with deliberate errors in the database) from the link on the left.
- Biochemical
Simulations - the virtual laboratory:
- Metabolism
on-line: A series of interactive
tutorial exercises in nutrition and metabolism, based on case presentations
and data interpretation.
- Test
me: A program to allow students to assess their knowledge
of nutrition and metabolism with sets of true/false questions, using confidence-based
marking. The banks of questions are based on the chapters in "Introduction
to Nutrition and Metabolism" 4th Edition (D.A.Bender, CRC Press, Boca
Raton, 2008). It is easy to edit the question banks using standard word processing
software, and additional banks of questions can also be added. Each time the
program is run a different random set of questions is generated.
- Practice
calculations: A series of programs to allow students to practice
common calculations in nutrition, biochemistry and physiology. Each time the
programs are run different values are produced. These programs are available
to use free of charge from the link on the left.
top of page
Copyright © 2009 David A Bender : this page was updated on
August 31, 2009