On-Line Science Labs
by
Evelyn Beck
IN VIRTUAL SCIENCE labs, students can handle dangerous poisons,
analyze raging rivers, and conduct experiments in evolution-activities
otherwise impossible for most college students.
“The on-line labs were designed to provide a laboratory experience
in situations where it is not feasible to do a wet lab because
of the time, expense, or danger involved,” says Robert Desharnais,
a biology professor at California State University in Los
Angeles. Desharnais has helped design EvolutionLab, MitochondriaLab,
and Virtual River, on-line biology labs that are available
by subscription from Addison Wesley Longman (http://biologylab.awlonline.com/).
These labs are intended as supplements for high school and
college students in classes ranging from introductory biology
to population genetics.
Instructors at California State University at Los Angeles
can pick and choose which virtual labs they wish to use. The
kinds of experiments vary from the mundane to the mathematical
to the virtually dangerous. For example, in the virtual earthquake
lab, students generate a set of seismograms for an earthquake
and locate its epicenter by estimating the time interval between
the arrival of the P and S waves. “In MitochondriaLab,” says
Desharnais, “students run simulated wet lab experiments that
use dangerous poisons like cyanide that we would not want
to risk doing for real. In Virtual River, students can take
detailed hydrological measurements that allow them to learn
about river discharge, erosion, and flooding – measurements
that would require weeks of dangerous field work to obtain.”
In contrast, the science lab for physical geography at Casper
College in Casper, Wyoming, is totally virtual. For Gerald
Nelson, who directs distance education at Casper, the on-line
labs offer the chance to expose students to far richer resources
than the college can offer, such as satellite images and data
involving climate, volcanoes, and earthquakes. He even believes
that students learn the scientific method better in on-line
labs than they do in face-to-face labs.
But most science instructors agree that wet labs offer an
experience that can’t be replaced. “Some things simply need
to be touched, tasted, poked, prodded, or dissected,” admits
Nelson.
In a simulated lab, Desharnais insists, “You cannot learn
to use laboratory and field equipment such as microscopes,
pipettes, and velocity sensors by clicking objects on a computer
screen. Also, the virtual labs are sanitized experiences which
underestimate the true challenges and difficulties needed
to do scientific work. Most importantly, with the virtual
labs, the students always have in their mind that they are
dealing with a simulation of nature, not the real thing. I
believe students get more satisfaction and wonder from the
experience of a successful experiment or field trip in the
real world because they know there is no preprogrammed algorithm
that guarantees a successful outcome.
For many programs, the ideal compromise is a combination
of virtual and hands-on lab experiences. Students enrolled
in the on-line physical geology course at Casper College must
attend two Saturday hands-on labs as well as conduct experiments
using lab kits they receive in the mail.
A similar hybrid approach is taken at Rio Salado Community
College in Tempe, Arizona. John Arle oversees a science program
that is entirely on-line and that is staffed completely by
adjunct instructors, including one who continues to teach
for RSCC even after moving to Iowa. Biology students receive
lab kits in the mail, while anatomy students get a CD-ROM.
Instead of actually dissecting a cat in a traditional wet
lab, virtual anatomy students dissect a human on the computer.
“They’re doing everything they could do [before] with their
cat,” says Arle. “The advantage is now they have the right
species.”
One of the more unusual on-line science labs is a virtual
crime lab that supplements an on-campus course called Chemistry
and Crime: From Sherlock Holmes to Modern Forensic Science,
at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The virtual
lab is intended to introduce students to the nature of crime
labs before they attend hands-on labs. It is also a way to
add order to the chaos that resulted when fifteen lab students
coming from different crime scenes engaged simultaneously
in six or seven different experiments. “It was hard to coordinate,”
says chemistry professor Lawrence Kaplan, who teaches the
popular course.
Despite the different approaches, instructors agree that
one must think differently when designing a virtual lab. “Instructions
have to be very specific,” says Arle. “You don’t have the
latitude of standing in front of a class and talking the students
through the experiment.”
On-line labs are expected to proliferate with the expansion
of distance education, and they should improve along with
the available technology. Nelson says, “Many things are possible
now but impractical, as we must design for the lowest common
denominator as far as student equipment and software goes.
This will change as a higher grade of equipment and software
becomes more readily and widely available to the general public.”
“The number of virtual labs will definitely increase,” agrees
Desharnais. “However, there will always be a place for wet
labs and field experience.”
