Laboratory Instruction

laboratory-instruction

Laboratory Instruction

Laboratory courses offer the opportunity to expose learners to first-hand applied experiences by allowing them to explore and manipulate course content and methods used in their scientific disciplines. Well-designed laboratory courses motivate and incentivize learners to work together to solve problems in a supportive setting where the instructor and teaching assistants are available to guide the process while allowing learners to assume ownership of their learning. Laboratory courses can be challenging to develop and may be perceived by learners as busy work when there is no clear purpose or defined outcomes. To avoid these pitfalls, consider the general guidelines below adapted from the Center for Teaching, Vanderbilt University, and Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation, Carnegie Mellon University.

Consider potential goals of your laboratory course

  • Apply concepts learned in class to new situations.
  • Develop quantitative and qualitative data collection skills (e.g. sampling, measurement, surveys, interviews) and demonstrating the uncertainty and error inherent in research.
  • Develop quantitative and qualitative data analysis skills.
  • Learn to collect, process, and analyze biological and environmental data samples (e.g. water, soil, blood)
  • Develop skills in observation, problem-solving, analysis, and critical thinking.
  • Develop procedural skills such as the proper use of instruments and tools (e.g. BMI measurements).
  • Learn to use a scientific apparatus.
  • Practice teamwork and collaboration.

As you prepare for your laboratory class sessions, consider the following questions:

  • Is there appropriate sequencing between my main course lectures and labs, such that lectures needed to successfully complete labs are delivered before the labs, but not so far in the past that learners forget the content?
  • Can I and/or my TA complete a dry run of the lab before class? This can surface potential issues with the equipment, lab instructions or time that you can either address or anticipate prior to the actual lab.
  • Am I familiar with the lab instructions, materials, software, and equipment needed for each lab session?
  • What are the safety considerations?
  • Is there safety training that learners need to complete before starting lab assignments? (e.g. laboratory safety, biological safety, blood-borne pathogens)
  • Would it help to give learners a handout highlighting key theoretical, procedural, and safety considerations discussed in the main lecture?
  • How can I briefly link each lab session to my main course lecture (e.g. prepare brief asynchronous or synchronous material to contextualize each lab)?
  • Is there any preparation that learners need to do prior to lab each week? What instructions would be helpful for me to give them? (e.g. view brief asynchronous lecture or lab prep content)
  • What tips can I give my learners so they can complete the lab successfully within the time allotted? How should learners proceed if they don’t complete the lab in the allotted time?
  • Where might my learners run into difficulty completing the lab? How can I/my TA be prepared to support them?
  • Would it be helpful to demonstrate new techniques to the learners? Should I do that during the lab? Should I post a video online for them to watch prior to the lab?
  • How will I monitor learner progress during the lab? (e.g. presence during entire lab time to walk around and check in with lab groups/individuals)
  • What kinds of questions should I ask my learners to stimulate their thinking and to encourage deeper understanding of the lab experiment/analysis?
  • How can I prepare and support the lab pairs/groups to work together well? (e.g. allow pairs/groups class time at the start of the semester to establish ground rules for their working dynamic; make yourself available to address issues around group dynamics should they arise)
  • Are expectations clear to learners about what they need to submit at the end of each lab session? Did you clarify your expectations around collaboration across lab groups and the degree to which answers on worksheets/lab assignments can be shared with peers? This is key to preventing misunderstandings around cheating/plagiarism concerns!

  During the lab sessions, be prepared to do the following:

  • Outline: prepare an outline of the lab activities for each lab session.
  • Connect labs with main course: while the connection between labs and other course materials might seem obvious to you, learners often do not make these connections. Give a mini-lecture (5-7 minutes) at the beginning of each lab session to include:
    • learning objectives for the lab session; keep these objectives in mind as you guide the lab session, and reinforce the objectives at the end of the session
    • situate the lab session within the course as a whole to help learners see the larger relevance
    • connect the lab session with other materials from the course including lectures, reading materials, homework assignments etc.
  • Safety: provide safety instructions when working with equipment that is unfamiliar to learners. Learners should have the chance to practice with equipment and procedures before using them in potentially dangerous exercises. While live demonstrations by the instructor are the most common ways to model safety procedures, slides, films, videos, and computer simulations can also be used to illustrate proper techniques -- or to demonstrate the consequences of unsafe or sloppy techniques.
  • Ethical considerations: if learners collect sample data from each other as part of the lab exercise (e.g. psychosocial information, physical metrics, other health data) ensure that this is done on a voluntary basis (learners’ grades should not be dependent on providing/not providing data), personal data are not identifiable to the class and beyond, and learners understand the ethical implications of collecting and utilizing personal information. While learners will likely have completed their CITI certifications at this point, it is worth addressing these ethical considerations in the context of your lab course.
  • Your active presence: visit each learner or learner pair/group individually whether they meet in a face-to-face or virtual break-out group environment to provide guidance, stimulation, and feedback. Make sure you provide equitable help to learners. It is easier to spend more time around those who ask most questions or are most outgoing or sociable. To distribute your attention equitably and effectively, consider different options including:
    • demonstrating a procedure or giving an explanation to one group and asking that group to teach other learners, but rotate so that all learners have the benefit of hearing directly from the instructor
    • if you have TAs, divide the class and each of you give feedback to a different group, but rotate periodically so that learners have the benefit of the instructor’s perspective
  • provide ample feedback to learners during lab but refrain from giving them so much feedback that you essentially complete the assignment for them.
  • Opportunities to deepen learning: use questions to encourage critical thinking. These might be questions about observations and preliminary analyses. They might be questions asking learners to predict a result before they try the experiment, to offer an initial hypothesis, or to provide evidence to support an assertion. They might be hypothetical questions or questions about implications. Often the best questions are the questions learners raise themselves. Depending on the question a learner asks, you may choose to (a) answer it, (b) throw the question back to the learner to answer (i.e., That’s an excellent question: what do you think?), or (c) open the question up to the entire class.
  • Writing skills: emphasize to learners that proper writing is equally as important on lab assignments as the content, and that clear communication (whether written or oral) is as critical in science as it is in other professions. Clearly define the elements of effective lab reports (using performance rubrics, for example), and give learners ample practice developing the skills they will need to write successfully in the context of your lab course. If your lab course uses technical language, it can be productive to give learners opportunities to talk or write about scientific issues in non-technical language before they are expected to use technical terms or scientific conventions. Provide examples of dos/don’ts from prior lab courses as appropriate.
  • Anchor learning to objectives: revisit the learning objectives that you introduced at the beginning of the lab and ask learners to synthesize what they have learned by writing a lab report, giving a presentation, taking quiz or completing a worksheet.

After the lab:

  • If you have different TAs helping with grading, ensure consistency of grading across all TAs.
  • Read, evaluate and return the lab assignments to learners in a timely manner with ample feedback.
  • Help learners improve by focusing your comments on specific areas of improvement rather than on their performance on the lab as a whole.
  • When you detect common errors among learners, begin the next lab with a brief review and explanation of those errors; when possible, find ways to re-address underlying concepts in your course lecture for additional clarity.
  • Consider grading labs as Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory and allow re-submissions for optimal learning.

 

References

Kent State: Simulations as a Teaching Strategy

Vanderbilt University: Center for Teaching - Digital Labs and Simulations

Vanderbilt University: Center for Teaching - Teaching Laboratory Classes

Carnegie Mellon  University: Eberly Center - Labs/Studios