The look, and the feel and the smell

Here is a good article weighing the merits of virtual learning labs on the Internet. Should a student earn credit for mixing chemicals online rather than in a real lab? This article shows that there are no simple answers. It might be better to be in the lab, but what about schools that don’t offer certain classes or don’t even have adequate physical labs? With the labs available on the Internet, should a student be penalized if that is all he or she has to work with? Are virtual labs realistic enough to fully educate students?

Now, however, a dispute with potentially far-reaching consequences has flared over how far the Internet can go in displacing the brick-and-mortar laboratory.Prompted by skeptical university professors, the College Board, one of the most powerful organizations in American education, is questioning whether Internet-based laboratories are an acceptable substitute for the hands-on culturing of gels and peering through microscopes that have long been essential ingredients of American laboratory science.

As part of a broader audit of the thousands of high school courses that display its Advanced Placement trademark, the board has recruited panels of university professors and experts in Internet-based learning to scrutinize the quality of online laboratories used in Web-based A.P. science courses.

Professors are saying that simulations can be really good, that they use them to supplement their own lab work, but that theyd be concerned about giving credit to students who have never had any experience in a hands-on lab, said Trevor Packer, the boards executive director for Advanced Placement. You could have students going straight into second-year college science courses without ever having used a Bunsen burner.

Twenty-five states operate public, Internet-based schools like the Florida Virtual School, the nations largest, which has some 40,000 students.

In recent conversations with college science professors, the board has encountered considerable skepticism that virtual laboratories can replace hands-on experience, he said.

But educators at several prominent online schools pointed to their students high scores on A.P. exams.

On the 2005 administration of the A.P. biology exam, for instance, 61 percent of students nationwide earned a qualifying score of three or above on the A.P.s five-point system. Yet 71 percent of students who took A.P. biology online through the Florida Virtual School, and 80 percent of students who took it from the Virtual High School, earned a three or higher on that test.

The proof is in the pudding, said Pam Birtolo, chief learning officer at the Florida Virtual School.

Make sure we have potatoes in the house, my daughter told me before her last lab, in which students studied osmosis, said Mayuri Shah, whose daughter Sonia is taking A.P. biology from the Florida Virtual School. Sonia, 16, enrolled in the online course because her high school in Lecanto, Fla., north of Tampa, does not offer it.

That is one of the most common reasons students sign up for online classes, said Ms. Patrick, the North American Council for Online Learning president.

Thousands of schools in rural areas dont have science labs, but they have kids who want to go to college and need that science inquiry experience, she said. Virtual science labs are their only option.

About Brandon Haught

Communications Director for Florida Citizens for Science.
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One Response to The look, and the feel and the smell

  1. Chemistry labs have been known to blow up in the student’s face. Does that element of danger enhance learning? The argument is extended by saying that students should have the opportunity to look through microscopes for themselves. Yet, how many even “wealthy” schools are able to afford microscopes of a quality good enough to allow students to see much of anything? Furthermore, all it takes to render even an excellent microscope largely useless is for a student to smear immersion oil onto one or more of the “high-dry” objective lenses. Take it from a long-time teacher, this happens all the time regardless of how often the admonition not to is repeated. How many even “wealthy” school districts can afford the repair and/or maintenance contracts needed to keep excellent equipment in good working order. Many expect the science teacher to do this. Some can and do, many either cannot (most K12 science teachers have never had the opportunity to become practitioners of science) or else feel that if they are to be expected to render a service (repair and maintenance of equipment) in a job, they should be paid for it.

    The College Board’s Advanced Placement program is indeed powerful. What makes it so is the general recognition that the AP exam in whatever subject constitutes a valid, performance-based evaluation of a student’s college-level performance. I am gratified to see the College Board express such an unqualified support for laboratory instruction. Nevertheless, I am dismayed by the naiveté displayed. Imaging of all kinds has been digital for years now and getting more so. Microscopy done for research purposes usually involves microscopes connected not to the eye of the scientist but rather to high resolution, fully color capable digital image capture devices networked to computers. Those of us of the grey-haired persuasion may well look at this and think that it resembles a video game (we can’t say a Rube Goldberg device since few people today remember Mr. Goldberg and his contraptions). Nevertheless, no one doubts the efficacy of a digital microscope. Why should today’s students be denied a science learning experience that most closely resembles today’s scientific reality? I am afraid that the College Board’s backward-looking position on the “issue” of virtual laboratories may only diminish their otherwise well-earned reputation.

    M. “Mike” Mychajlonka, Ph. D.
    mm@struten.org
    http://struten.org

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