Within Sciences, a strong emphasis is placed on providing to students a technologically up-to-date learning environment. The use of IT has not been overlooked in this sense, and indeed has been expanded to become a teaching medium for non-IT oriented subjects. We endeavour to keep both hardware and software as up-to-date and industry relevant as possible.

Computer Aided Learning is now an acknowledged medium to support classroom teaching, and through a series of initiatives and programmes an explosion in the use of computers as a direct teaching medium has occured. Have a look at the University's eLearning programmes if you want to know more about the philosophy of using computers as teaching and learning tools.

In addition to allowing computers to be used in new ways for teaching, the Sciences I.T. Suite also provides for more straight-forward IT needs, such as the word-processing and analytical tools required by all students when preparing reports, assignments and dissertations.

Your health and safety questions may be answered by going to our
Health & Safety section of the IT FAQ's page.

Details about the I.T. Suite staff may be found at the
I.T. Suite Staff pages.
Mark Jennings is the Faculty I.T. Manager, here's his homepage.

HARDWARE

Our PC's all use Windows XP, hooked into our Windows server. The 'heart' of the IT Suite is three labs based on the fourth floor of Mellor, which also includes facilities for specialist printing, plotting and scanning. Virtual Tour of one of the I.T. Suite Rooms. On top of this, several other labs are available on the second floor, all of which are open-access when teaching is not taking place. At any one time we ensure that PC's are always available for individual use.

From each PC, users can choose to produce hard copy output of their work on a variety of devices - dot matrix printer, laser printer, colour laser printer.
A number of input devices are also available - including a flatbed scanner and a digital camera.

Specific instructions on how to operate each device are contained in our Frequently Asked Questions page.

SOFTWARE

What are Viruses and how do I protect my home PC?

We use a variety of software, the more specialist of which we have attempted to classify by subject. Please note that this classification is not absolute - some software is cross-functional, and may serve more than one subject area. Additionally, this list is not exhaustive, and of course will be changing all the time.

General Software:

• Microsoft Office XP2007(comprising Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint, Photo Editor & Publisher)
• SPSS (a statistical analysis tool which is in popular demand across all School Divisions)
• Netscape (web browser) & Internet Explorer
• Outlook(all staff and students have e-mail accounts, which are accessed through this package)
• Paint Shop Pro - Image Processing Software
• FreeHand 10 - Image Processing Software
  

Biological Sciences Software:

• Bacterial Growth 3
• Begon Ecology
• DNAStar
• EnzPack 3
• Foods You Eat
• Genetherapy
• Malaria
• Nerve Physiology
• Nutrition
• Phama-CAL-ogy Software
• Recombinant DNA
• Renal
• Renal Function in Humans
• Respiration
• Schistosomiasis
• Statistics for the Terrified
• Synaptic Transmission in the CNS
• CMS 2000
  

Chemistry Software:

• PC Spartan (3-D Modelling)
• Chemistry Tutor
• ChemJournal
• Chemistry Quiz
• Chemware Suite
• AAS Softbook
• GC Softbook
• Mass Spectrometry Softbook
  

Geography Software:

• ArcInfo
• ArcView
• Idrisi for Windows
• GeographyCal
• Landscape Tutor
• STEPS
• ArchCal
• DIPS
• LANDSIM
• UKESCC
• SURPAC

Psychology Software:

• Active Stats
• Biopac
• Bodyworks
• Exploring Perception
• LISREL
• SuperLab
• TLearn