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Science Labs

Labs have been a constant challenge for all the science courses. The question that keeps popping up is, how do you replace the hands on experience that a student gets from actually doing a lab with an on-line lab?

The answer is you don't. There is no way to replicate the hands on experience a student gets from actually doing a lab. For example, you can simulate the process of giving an IV, dissecting a frog, doing a titration, etc; but the frustration and learning that comes from actually performing these activities can not be simulated.

CLASS™ courses include numerous ways to approximate a real lab situation when using a computer: videos, interactive labs, and real life labs. Following are a few points of interest.

Videos have been used to show students performing the actual labs in a laboratory setting. On-line students are expected to watch the video. In some cases, after watching the video, students are expected to go and perform the same lab on their own. This works for simple labs, where the students can find the materials they need at home. However, the more complex labs can not be done this way. In these cases, the student is required to watch the video and then answer lab questions. However, this now is really not a lab but turns into a demo with questions.

Interactive labs were used to approximate the real life lab as closely as possible. With these, the students click and drag different lab materials to beakers, slides to microscopes, beakers to autoclaves, etc. Once the materials are in place, the students can manipulate them; for example, they can stir the chemicals, focus the microscope, light and turn on the Bunsen burner. These labs have come close to simulating the actual experience that a student would have in a real laboratory situation.

Real Life labs were used in CLASS™ courses when a lab was simple enough that students would have access to the materials needed inside their home. These were most often accompanied by a video, just in case some of the students did not have access.

Depending upon the criteria, you can choose a variety of ways to deliver labs. Use video, interactive labs, real life labs using materials at home, or send a lab kit to the distance learner. Labs are required to meet the state and national standards and, therefore, are a must.

Out of all the CLASS™ science courses, Physics lends itself more to virtual labs than the other science courses. A lot of the physics labs can be simulated using a computer, and the students can collect data and perform the experiment.

Following is a list of other issues to consider with the on-line labs:

• Think about file size and bandwidth. These will directly effect loading time and the last thing you want student to do is wait, 10 minutes or longer, while their lab loads.
• Interactive labs are great but the cost in time and money to make a good one is enormous.
• It isn’t legitimate to ‘require’ students to have any materials other than what they can find in their household or local classroom and you don’t know what they have on hand.
• If you are considering sending out a lab kit, it is important to find out what kinds of chemicals and supplies can be sent. The supplies that can be sent to students are limited due to hazards. This limits the kinds of labs you can have students do, since labs at home are unsupervised.
• If you are planning on using interactive labs, you need access to lab facilities, materials, supplies, in order to create the most realistic lab possible.
  

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