Given a protein, it is often necessary to study its geometric and physicochemical properties for studying its structure and predicting funtions of a protein. In this case, a connolly surface of a protein plays important roles for these purpose. A protein consists of a set of amino acids and a set of atoms comprise an amino acide. Since an atom can be represented by a hard 3D sphere in van der Waals model, a protein is usually modeled as a set of 3D spheres. In this paper, we present the algorithm for computing a connolly surface using Euclidean Voronoi diagram atoms of a protein. The algorithm initially locates the exterior aotms of a protein where connolly surface patches exist and computes the patches by tracking their boundary curves. Since a Euclidean Voronoi diagram is uniquely defined independent of probe radius different from other geometric structures, the connolly surfaces defined by probes of different radii can be computed without re-computing the Euclidean Voronoi diagram.

This study is a report of the collaborative action research which has been conducted between a Korean earth science teacher and science education researcher. A two-year long action research effort was made in order to improve the teacher’s earth science classrooms in pursuit of constructivist principles of learning. The process of the action research was described with the aim of increasing the awareness of science teachers and science education researchers regarding action research. Quantitative evidence was presented to indicate the effectiveness of the collaborative action research in creating constructivist learning environments in the classrooms. The process and quantitative evidence from the action research permitted a consideration of implications for future efforts to improve science classrooms.