Laboratory Teaching in General Education Courses

Abstract

The extent to which laboratory activities are used in general education science courses, and the nature of these activities, have been investigated in the course of visits to 16 institutions and by reference to catalogs of 13 additional liberal arts colleges. Laboratory was found to be fairly regularly used in about two-thirds of the physical science courses, and in a still larger fraction of the biological science courses. Probably less than ten percent of the students at these institutions earn the B.A. degree without a substantial laboratory experience of some kind. Significant attitudes, techniques and experiments in practice at a number of institutions are reported, and an appeal is made for many more to be published. As a result of the study, a set of ideals for “discovery-type” laboratory activities for general education courses is suggested.