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Online Biology Pre-Labs
5/30/2003
- "The Prelab tells you exactly what you are doing in the experiment which made me feel that I was wasting my time during the actual lab."
- "I think that it would help to gain experience in the lab if the Prelabs weren't exactly the same as the labs in class."
- "After doing the Prelabs, there is no real reason to come to class. We go in and do a lab that is exactly like the computer."
- "The Prelabs were very helpful, but I don't think doing the Prelabs and then going to class and completing the exact same lab was very helpful. I already knew what was going to happen so I didn't want to watch and do it again."
The Completely Online Lab
We are currently developing virtual lab exercises based on our experience with
the online Prelabs. We are convinced that, especially for non-science majors,
well-designed online labs can completely substitute for the "real thing." For
non-science majors, understanding experimental design and data interpretation
are more important than learning to manipulate a particular scientific apparatus.
For science majors, the situation is different. Hands-on lab experience can be very important, for there are many significant science concepts found in the experimental manipulations themselves. For majors, online Prelabs should be used to prepare them so that their actual laboratory experience can be enhanced. For the science students as well, online preparation should free time from the details and allow for probing and investigating beyond the initial lab manual experiments.
A student expressed this concept as follows:
"I liked the Prelabs because it
helped me know what to expect when I came into lab. At the same time I kind
of felt as though the prelabs made lab experiments unnecessary because we already
knew what to expect for all the results. In my opinion the labs would be much
more enjoyable if the results we were to get were somewhat unexpected. Perhaps
if there was a prelab to explain the experiment and then other experiments to
do in lab, students would retain more info from the lab and be more likely to
pay attention during their lab time."
Instructors in more advanced biology classes may also find that introducing and reviewing concepts in a Prelab and then following with investigative experiments in the actual lab would be advantageous to stimulate scientific discovery in students.
We plan to use the information gained from the student comments and survey to refine how online Prelabs can help us facilitate the best educational experience for all levels of students.
The Biology Concepts Laboratory Prelabs at WKU are freely accessible at http://bioweb.wku.edu/courses/Biol121/Prelabs.htm and are listed and reviewed at the MERLOT Web site: www.merlot.org.
Robert Wyatt is an assistant professor of biology at
Western Kentucky University.
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