Assignment #1
Assignment #1
The article that I chose to read was “No Test Tubes? Debate on Virtual Science Classes” highlighted in the October 23, 2006 NSTA Express online newsletter. The article originally appeared in the New York Times, October 20, 2006. The article focuses on the debate surrounding students that receive college credit after having only received virtual laboratory experience with no hands-on experimentation in the lab. I asked 2 science instructors about their thoughts on the Virtual Chem Labs available for students.
The first instructor I interviewed, Dean Richens, teaches Chemistry and Physics at Union High School. He thinks the virtual labs have a place in classrooms but should not replace hands-on experiences. He has used lab simulation software to introduce students to laboratory experiments that would be too dangerous or costly, as well as showing students in simulation what to expect in the lab. However, in his experience he finds that students that have spent lots of time in the virtual lab and then transition to a real lab are very forgetful of safety precautions. In a virtual lab, you can’t get hurt, but that changes in the real world. He also doesn’t feel that student are prepared for upper division lab classes when virtual labs are the only learning tool. He acknowledges the ease of preparation and set-up time for a virtual lab, but wonders how much students actually learn.
Similar sentiments were expressed by the USU-Uintah Basin Chemistry Professor, Dr. Charles Langley. He said, “You can’t teach someone to milk a cow using only a computer.” There is something about performing a titration or mixing a solution and feeling the exothermic reaction through the beaker that a computer simulation cannot replicate. When I asked him if there was a place for virtual labs, he said that he had ordered some for the nursing chemistry students because they likely will never see the inside of a lab in their working careers and the expense of putting them through a real lab outweighs the benefit. However, for science majors, there is a certain expectation that a real lab experience has been achieved. He feels he would be cheating his students if a real lab were not provided containing real chemicals with which to experiment.
I can’t help but wonder, though, how Virtual High School students have scored so well on the AP exams as the article points out. These virtual schools must be doing something very well to pass 10% more students than the national average.
As I think about the tools that I will use to effectively teach science in the classroom, I am interested in all methods that point to a higher understanding for students. The limited amount that I have played with some of the software packages leads me to think that there is a high potential and untapped resource in these laboratory simulations. I hope to be able to learn to use them effectively.
The article that I chose to read was “No Test Tubes? Debate on Virtual Science Classes” highlighted in the October 23, 2006 NSTA Express online newsletter. The article originally appeared in the New York Times, October 20, 2006. The article focuses on the debate surrounding students that receive college credit after having only received virtual laboratory experience with no hands-on experimentation in the lab. I asked 2 science instructors about their thoughts on the Virtual Chem Labs available for students.
The first instructor I interviewed, Dean Richens, teaches Chemistry and Physics at Union High School. He thinks the virtual labs have a place in classrooms but should not replace hands-on experiences. He has used lab simulation software to introduce students to laboratory experiments that would be too dangerous or costly, as well as showing students in simulation what to expect in the lab. However, in his experience he finds that students that have spent lots of time in the virtual lab and then transition to a real lab are very forgetful of safety precautions. In a virtual lab, you can’t get hurt, but that changes in the real world. He also doesn’t feel that student are prepared for upper division lab classes when virtual labs are the only learning tool. He acknowledges the ease of preparation and set-up time for a virtual lab, but wonders how much students actually learn.
Similar sentiments were expressed by the USU-Uintah Basin Chemistry Professor, Dr. Charles Langley. He said, “You can’t teach someone to milk a cow using only a computer.” There is something about performing a titration or mixing a solution and feeling the exothermic reaction through the beaker that a computer simulation cannot replicate. When I asked him if there was a place for virtual labs, he said that he had ordered some for the nursing chemistry students because they likely will never see the inside of a lab in their working careers and the expense of putting them through a real lab outweighs the benefit. However, for science majors, there is a certain expectation that a real lab experience has been achieved. He feels he would be cheating his students if a real lab were not provided containing real chemicals with which to experiment.
I can’t help but wonder, though, how Virtual High School students have scored so well on the AP exams as the article points out. These virtual schools must be doing something very well to pass 10% more students than the national average.
As I think about the tools that I will use to effectively teach science in the classroom, I am interested in all methods that point to a higher understanding for students. The limited amount that I have played with some of the software packages leads me to think that there is a high potential and untapped resource in these laboratory simulations. I hope to be able to learn to use them effectively.
posted by Anonymous | 10:37 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home