{"id":74,"date":"2006-10-20T17:23:54","date_gmt":"2006-10-20T21:23:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=74"},"modified":"2008-08-05T10:39:48","modified_gmt":"2008-08-05T14:39:48","slug":"the-look-and-the-feel-and-the-smell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=74","title":{"rendered":"The look, and the feel and the smell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is a good article<\/a> 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?<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

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

…<\/p>\n

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

But educators at several prominent online schools pointed to their students high scores on A.P. exams.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The proof is in the pudding, said Pam Birtolo, chief learning officer at the Florida Virtual School.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-1c","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":753,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=753","url_meta":{"origin":74,"position":0},"title":"Importance of science lab design","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"October 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"A Florida high school science teacher and FCS member recently asked for some help concerning a possible new science lab at her school. With her permission, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m posting her concerns here for y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all to mull over. It's been said that our science wings will be torn down and rebuilt elsewhere\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":164,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=164","url_meta":{"origin":74,"position":1},"title":"Sinks drain into buckets in science lab?!","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Now here is\u00c2\u00a0a sad state of affairs. It's not like it's expected that every school in the state should have state-of-the-art science labs, but could some at least hook up some plumbing? NEPTUNE BEACH, Fla. -- At a time when science is a growing part of Duval County student education,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the Classroom"","block_context":{"text":"In the Classroom","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":722,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=722","url_meta":{"origin":74,"position":2},"title":"Science FCAT “Lessons Learned”","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"September 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The Department of Education announced today that they released a publication entitled \"FCAT Science Lessons Learned: 2003\u00e2\u20ac\u201c2006 Data Analyses and Instructional Implications\" (pdf is here). This document was created by a Task Force that analyzed the data supplied by science FCAT scores from 2003 to 2006. The Task Force identified\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "FCAT"","block_context":{"text":"FCAT","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=22"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":486,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=486","url_meta":{"origin":74,"position":3},"title":"It’s time to move on","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Setting aside the anti-science nonsense brewing in the Florida senate for a moment, let's think about the future. The new state science standards are approved. It's time for schools statewide to think about how to best implement them. The Bradenton Herald has a story on this subject. Now that the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the Classroom"","block_context":{"text":"In the Classroom","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":208,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=208","url_meta":{"origin":74,"position":4},"title":"More science lab woes","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I noted poor school science lab conditions before, but it looks like the problem just isn't going away here in Florida: This is just sad Science facilities are so poor at one of Jacksonville's best high schools, that a science teacher began renovating them himself. Jim Stehr of Fletcher High\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the Classroom"","block_context":{"text":"In the Classroom","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":209,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=209","url_meta":{"origin":74,"position":5},"title":"Another science lab story","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's yet another story about science labs and a new focus on science education overall. (Following up on yesterday's post.) Because of the intense focus on math and reading, the two main subjects on the FCAT, some elementary-age children received no science instruction at all, something no longer possible as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the Classroom"","block_context":{"text":"In the Classroom","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}