Article

High school laboratory without lab handouts

Authors:
  • Penn State Lehigh Valley
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Abstract

An age-old problem of laboratory instruction is finding a way to get students to prepare before coming to lab. Recently one of the authors (MP) has advocated “free form preparation”.The students may prepare their lab notebooks in any way whatever, subject only to the constraint that the lab manual not be brought into the room (1-4). Potentially this idea is a simple solution to the nagging problem of student preparation. However, there is still real skepticism about this idea, which has been tried only at the college level in very few courses. This paper will examine what happens when this style of preparation is extended to a high school lab.

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... For long-term benefits to be obtained from hands-on laboratory experiences, students must be theoretically and procedurally prepared (Gregory & Di Trapani, 2012). Previous research suggests that students do not prepare well for laboratory work (e.g., Ealy & Pickering, 1992;Jones & Edwards, 2010;Pogacnik & Cigic, 2006;Whittle & Bickerdike, 2015). Jones and Edwards (2010) reported that only 15% of undergraduate biology students (n=128) did substantial preparation, while 85% did some or no preparation. ...
Presentation
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The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of an online virtual lab as a learning tool to prepare allied health students for face-to-face laboratory sessions. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected from 64 university students (55 females, 9 males) and analyzed to assess attitudes towards the virtual lab. Students reported that the virtual lab made skill acquisition easier and faster, helped them prepare for hands-on laboratory sessions, and was a tool they would use again. The key benefits of the virtual lab was that it enabled students to visualize procedures and reactions outside of the traditional laboratory setting. Student visualization enhanced preparedness and performance in the laboratory environment.
... For long-term benefits to be obtained from hands-on laboratory experiences, students must be theoretically and procedurally prepared (Gregory & Di Trapani, 2012). Previous research suggests that students do not prepare well for laboratory work (e.g., Ealy & Pickering, 1992;Jones & Edwards, 2010;Pogacnik & Cigic, 2006;Whittle & Bickerdike, 2015). Jones and Edwards (2010) reported that only 15% of undergraduate biology students (n=128) did substantial preparation, while 85% did some or no preparation. ...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of an online virtual lab as a learning tool to prepare allied health students for face-to-face laboratory sessions. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected from 64 university students (55 females, 9 males) and analyzed to assess attitudes towards the virtual lab. Students reported that the virtual lab made skill acquisition easier and faster, helped them prepare for hands-on laboratory sessions, and was a tool they would use again. The key benefits of the virtual lab was that it enabled students to visualize procedures and reactions outside of the traditional laboratory setting. Student visualization enhanced preparedness and performance in the laboratory environment.
Article
Full-text available
Competency-based education in health care requires rigorous standards to ensure professional proficiency. Demonstrating competency in hands-on laboratories calls for effective preparation, knowledge, and experience, all of which can be difficult to achieve using traditional teaching methods. Virtual laboratories are an alternative, cost-effective approach to providing students with sufficient preparatory information. Research on the use of virtual labs in allied health education is limited. The current study investigated the benefits, challenges, and perceived impact of a virtual lab in an allied health program. The sample consisted of 64 students (55 females, 9 males) enrolled in a university medical laboratory science program. A convergent mixed-methods approach (Likert survey, open-ended questions, think-aloud protocol data) revealed that students had positive attitudes towards visual learning, authenticity, learner control, organization, and scaffolding afforded by the virtual lab. Challenges reported included navigational difficulties, an absence of control over content selection, and lack of understanding for certain concepts. Over 90% of students agreed that the virtual lab helped them prepare for hands-on laboratory sessions and that they would use this format of instruction again. Overall, 84% of the students agreed that the virtual lab helped them to achieve greater success in learning.
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A number of organizational and teaching aspects of first‐year university chemistry practicals in England and Wales have been studied. The practical classes consist, as a rule, of a series of discipline‐bound courses, sometimes preceded by a general techniques course. The assessment is almost entirely based on outcomes: quality and quantity of products and reports. The practical manuals are not always clear as far as experimental descriptions, requirements for students and assessment criteria are concerned. Only half of the universities studied use computers as part of their practical teaching programmes. Innovations in practicals mentioned in literature only gradually seeped into first‐year classes. However, there was evidence of some refreshing ideas for practical work.
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