Teaching labs during a pandemic: Lessons from Spring 2020 and an outlook for the future

Fox, Michael F. J.; Werth, Alexandra; Hoehn, Jessica R.; Lewandowski, H. J.

doi:10.48550/arxiv.2007.01271

Cited by 7 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Thus, university administrations should collaborate with instructors who teach courses that include technical lab work to devise the most suitable and effective methods for allowing the students to obtain this technical knowledge and to enhance the quality of courses taught during ERT. Some possible suggestions for improving the learning experience in this regard include the implementation of open-ended course projects coupled with short synchronous one-on-one meetings with students [ 76 , 77 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of Emergency Remote Teaching on College Students Amid COVID-19 in the UAE

El-Sakran

Salman

Alzaatreh

2022

IJERPH

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With the aim of appraising the impact of Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) amidst the COVID-19 pandemic on college students, an online survey was conducted in December 2020 on a total of 588 undergraduate students at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. The purpose of the study was to probe into the perceptions of college students regarding their learning process and its influence on their mental health with the abrupt transition from face-to-face classes to ERT in the Spring 2020 semester. A comprehensive analysis was performed using structural equation modeling and other statistical techniques to reveal crucial results associated with the factors that have an effect on the students’ psychological distress, such as quality of courses, academic performance, and readiness for future work or studies. Findings suggest that the students’ perceived quality of courses under ERT has a significant impact on their academic performance and readiness for future work or studies. Moreover, they indicate that these factors serve as a vital mediating role in provoking psychological distress among the students. The study also shows that gender, previous history of anxiety/distress, education being at risk due to financial issues caused by COVID-19, and year of study significantly affect the students’ distress levels. In order to ensure and prioritize the well-being of college students during these turbulent times, new strategies are urgently needed to develop and enhance resilient ERT environments in higher education. The study concludes with limitations and suggestions for further research.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of Emergency Remote Teaching on College Students Amid COVID-19 in the UAE

El-Sakran

Salman

Alzaatreh

2022

IJERPH

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“…However, accessibility challenges may remain. Previous reports on at-home laboratory experiments included student challenges such as lack of available space for conducting experiments and difficulty obtaining even commonplace supplies, due to cost or availability. − , As this feedback was gathered on laboratories conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, some of these challenges may have resulted from the unexpected switch to online instruction. For future semesters, setting clear guidelines and expectations at the start of the semester (or even before it begins) may help to mitigate some of these issues.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, lab kits can be costly, hindering access for some students . As an alternative, it is possible to design “kitchen chemistry” experiments utilizing common household items to perform basic chemistry experiments, which have shown to be effective at developing laboratory skills for students enrolled in general chemistry. ,− Here, we report an at-home experiment which does not require any expensive lab equipment and introduces the concept of titration effectively.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Simple At-Home Titration: Quantifying Citric Acid in Lemon Juice with Baking Soda and Mentos

et al. 2022

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At-home chemistry experiments are increasingly important to enable high-quality online and hybrid instruction. These class modalities provide significant challenges and also dramatically expand the accessibility of education to those who work or care for family during traditional school hours or have significant commutes to campus. This work demonstrates a novel approach to quantifying citric acid in lemon juice using baking soda as a titrant that requires no specialized equipment. Despite being a weak acid/weak base titration, the gas evolution of carbon dioxide brings this reaction to near completion. Since this process can be relatively slow, the candy Mentos is used to drive rapid gas evolution. The cessation of this vigorous gas evolution is used to track the end point of the titration. The results of this at-home titration were compared to a traditional in-person titration of citric acid in lemon juice (using sodium hydroxide as the titrant and a phenolphthalein indicator) performed by the same students. The at-home titration and the in-person titration yielded citric acid concentrations in lemon juice of 0.20 M (±0.08 M) and 0.25 M (±0.03 M), respectively.

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“…In this work, we focus on measurement uncertainty as a learning goal of introductory physics lab courses. Uncertainty analysis is a common learning goal in physics lab courses [15], thus the specifics of how it is taught are * benjamin.pollard@colorado.edu as varied as physics labs themselves. Here, we highlight a few lab curricula that are discussed in literature that describe a focus on measurement uncertainty, as well as some research studies around learning of measurement uncertainty in labs.…”

Section: A Measurement Uncertainty As a Learning Goalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of a course transformation on students' reasoning about measurement uncertainty

Pollard,

Werth,

Hobbs

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Physics lab courses are integral parts of an undergraduate physics education, and offer a variety of opportunities for learning. Many of these opportunities center around a common learning goal in introductory physics lab courses: measurement uncertainty. Accordingly, when the standalone introductory lab course at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU) was recently transformed, measurement uncertainty was the focus of a learning goal of that transformation. The Physics Measurement Questionnaire (PMQ), a research-based assessment of student understanding around statistical measurement uncertainty, was used to measure the effectiveness of that transformation.Here, we analyze student responses to the PMQ at the beginning and end of the CU course. We also compare such responses from two semesters: one before and one after the transformation. We present evidence that students in both semesters shifted their reasoning in ways aligned with the measurement uncertainty learning goal. Furthermore, we show that more students in the transformed semester shifted in ways aligned with the learning goal, and that those students tended to communicate their reasoning with greater sophistication than students in the original course. These findings provide evidence that even a traditional lab course can support valuable learning, and that transforming such a course to align with well-defined learning goals can result in even more effective learning experiences.

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Teaching labs during a pandemic: Lessons from Spring 2020 and an outlook for the future

Cited by 7 publications

References 20 publications

Impacts of Emergency Remote Teaching on College Students Amid COVID-19 in the UAE

Impacts of Emergency Remote Teaching on College Students Amid COVID-19 in the UAE

A Simple At-Home Titration: Quantifying Citric Acid in Lemon Juice with Baking Soda and Mentos

Impact of a course transformation on students' reasoning about measurement uncertainty

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