Hands-on Laboratory Research Articles

Assessing Students’ Approaches and Perceptions to Learning in Physics Experiments Based on Simulations and At-Home Lab Kits

Our study evaluates students’ approaches to and perceptions of the use of hands-on at-home laboratory kits (HALK) experiments, open-source computer-based simulations (OSCBS), and their combination (OSCBS-HALK) in undergraduate introductory asynchronous online physics courses. Anonymous survey data from students who had completed online physics courses with labs based on simulations, at-home lab kits, or both were collected using a modified version of the Learn Questionnaire (MVLQ). Findings in this study indicate that among the six scales (interest and relevance; peer support; staff enthusiasm and support; teaching for understanding; alignment; and constructive feedback) used to measure students’ perceptions of the teaching and learning environments, interest and relevance, peer support, and teaching for understanding had statistically significant different means across the three lab types. Post-hoc comparisons using the Tukey HSD test for the interest and relevance scale indicated that students viewed using a combination approach of OSCBS and HALK labs (M = 3.98, SD = 0.61) more significantly positive than using computer-simulated labs only (M = 3.56, SD = 0.75). Compared to other labs, computer-simulated labs were perceived to lead to a deep approach to learning. However, they had the lowest interest and relevance, peer support, and alignment ranking among the three lab groups. Thus, developing strategies to improve students’ engagement and ability to translate the simulations into physical processes is recommended for OSCBS.

Students' understanding and skills on voltage and current measurements using hands-on laboratory and simulation software.

Skills competency is important especially in vocational and technical education. Thus, the aim of this research was to develop the student conceptual knowledge and skills in electrical measuring device to equip the students the necessary skills to become competent and skilful Technologist/Technician. A mixed method data analysis was employed on the data for thirteen Diploma in Telecommunication and Systems Engineering students who participated in this study. Quantitative instruments such as pre-test and post-test were used to check students’ conceptual knowledge on electrical measurement after the exposure of the hands-on or simulation laboratories. Video recordings were used to capture students’ processes on conducting the electrical measurement for both interventions. Observation form and laboratory rubric were used to analyse the skills of the students. The observer comments were then classified according to thematic analysis. The findings indicated that the students demonstrated an improvement in their conceptual understanding and their skills competency in measuring current and voltage in electrical circuits.

A Taxonomy for Levels of Automation based on the Industrial Revolutions

Level of Automation (LoA) refers to the level of task planning and performance interaction maintained between human operators and computers in controlling a complex system. Different taxonomies for LoA have been introduced since the end of the 1950s. However, a taxonomy that can be applied independently from the application domain has not been proposed yet. Considering that the concepts related to the control science apply independently from the application domain, this work illustrates a taxonomy for LoA that relies on the different levels of control introduced within each industrial revolution. Furthermore, two hands-on laboratories are proposed to support the teaching of the taxonomy to students with different academic backgrounds. In order to be validated, the proposed taxonomy and the hands-on laboratories were respectively introduced and tested in a bachelor degree course. This validation process showed that the taxonomy has the potential to provide a common vocabulary and systematic view that can support the design of engineering systems that integrate humans and technologies, and education concerning the industrial revolutions. Additionally, the hands-on laboratories resulted to facilitate the comprehension of the taxonomy and to enhance students’ motivation, even for students from careers different from the engineering ones.

The Do-It-Yourself Electrocardiogram.

Hands-on labs are a critical component of biomedical engineering undergraduate education. Due to both the pandemic and the growing interest in online education, we developed a Do-it-yourself Electrocardiogram (DIY EKG) project. The Arduino-based DIY EKG kit instructed students how to build a circuit to obtain their own EKG and then analyze their EKG data using Matlab. Despite the obstacles of virtually trouble-shooting, 85.4% of students (n = 103) were able to obtain their own EKG at home. We have provided the labelled circuit drawings, step-by-step instructions, Matlab files, and results in this paper. Survey results indicate that 89% of students felt the DIY EKG project was a “challenging yet fulfilling experience.”Supplementary InformationThe online version of this article contains supplementary material available 10.1007/s43683-021-00061-0.

ReImagine Lab: Bridging the Gap Between Hands-On, Virtual and Remote Control Engineering Laboratories Using Digital Twins and Extended Reality

Practical work is one of the most important instructional tools in control engineering. To address concerns linked to the cost and space requirements of traditional hands-on laboratories, technology-enabled laboratory modes, such as virtual, remote, and take-home laboratory modes are proposed. Each of these alliterative laboratory modes has its own set of benefits and emphasizes a distinct learning goal. Furthermore, due to lockdown and physical proximity restrictions imposed by policies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the employment of these alliterative laboratory modes has been quickly increasing. The laboratories’ development, operation, and maintenance become more fragmented as a result of these many possibilities. In this study, we propose “ReImagine Lab” as a framework for leveraging digital twins and extended reality technologies to streamline the development and operation of hands-on, virtual, and distant laboratories. By increasing the level of interaction, immersion, and collaboration in technology-enabled laboratory forms, this framework intends to boost student engagement. The benefits of this framework are demonstrated by examining several use cases, and a 37-person “system usability study” is conducted to assess the usability of virtual laboratories employing desktop computers and immersive virtual reality.

The Effectiveness of Near-Peer Mentoring and Clinical Laboratory Experiences in Undergraduate Student Perceptions of Career Preparedness and the Profession of Audiology

Students in undergraduate Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) programs with an interest in audiology often report feeling unprepared to make career and graduate school decisions due to a lack of exposure to the field. The present study examines the impact of near-peer mentoring and hands-on lab experiences on undergraduate student perceptions of career preparedness and of the profession of audiology by examining pre- and post-course survey responses and lab wrapper responses of 41 undergraduate speech and hearing science majors enrolled in an introductory audiology course. Students were paired in groups with a first-year audiology graduate mentor to walk through a series of three clinical lab exercises. Results showed a positive influence on perceptions of career readiness resulting from both mentoring and clinical lab exposure, and more confidence in career decisions following the course.

Virtual/Remote Labs for Fluorescent Immunocytochemistry or Western Blotting: The Next Best Thing to Being There.

The SARS CoV-2 pandemic forced many college courses to convert to remote instruction almost overnight in the middle of the spring 2020 teaching semester. This article presents two molecular biology labs formerly performed in person by students but converted into virtual labs. The virtual immunocytochemistry experiment teaches the specificity of antibody staining, principles of fluorescent microscopy, diversity of brain cell types and morphologies, and journal article Figure construction skills. The virtual Western blotting experiment teaches sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), the specificity of antibody binding, and graph creation and interpretation skills. Both virtual experiments use professionally-produced web-based videos of scientists conducting the lab procedures. Students must answer questions about the techniques and analyze real experimental data generated by past students to take a quiz and write a journal article-style lab report. At the whole-class level, student quiz and lab report scores from these virtual labs were not statistically different from those from the in-person versions of the same labs from a previous semester, using t tests with the Bonferroni correction. On the virtual Western blot quiz, students who did the virtual version actually scored higher than students who did the in-person version. These results were significant when the 2020 data were analyzed by within-student paired t tests for in-person labs done before COVID-19 versus those done virtually after dismissal for all-remote instruction. The students learned the laboratory concepts and data analysis skills just as well virtually as their predecessors had in person. However, the students trained virtually reported that they could not enter the lab and actually do Western blotting or fluorescent immunocytochemistry with their own hands without extensive additional training. These virtual experiments can be done with data included in the supplemental materials or can easily be adapted for any micrographs or Western blotting images available from previous lab experiments, or in the published literature. When COVID-19 or other public health emergencies necessitate remote instruction and we can't use the best practice of hands-on lab work, virtual labs can be the next best thing to being there.

Development of Hybrid Laboratory Sessions During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This paper presents the hybrid delivery method of a laboratory experiment at the Stability Wind Tunnel of Virginia Tech to some 170 students during April 2020, which can be considered the early stages of the COVID-19 induced lockdown. The steps of converting the hands-on labs to hybrid labs are presented in detail. Namely, a videoconferencing […]

Hands-on Lab Activities at Home

Hands-on Lab Activities at Home

Small Organisms with Big Consequences: Understanding the Microbial World Around Us

Creating a hands-on lab that conveys important information while simultaneously allowing for student autonomy can be difficult. This is particularly true for the field of microbiology, in which labs often rely on &ldquo;recipe-style&rdquo; instructions and materials that can be difficult to scale up for larger class sizes. For these reasons, microbiology concepts are often left out&nbsp;of introductory biology labs, the ramifications of which have been made apparent during the recent COVID-19 virus pandemic. Fundamental microbiology concepts, e.g., the prevention of communicable diseases, are important to teach in introductory biology classrooms &ndash; often a student&#39;s&nbsp;only exposure to biology in their academic careers &ndash;&nbsp;in order to create a healthier community as a whole. Therefore, this general biology lab introduces an active-learning microbiology lab that&nbsp;teaches&nbsp;students about the microbial world. Students are first introduced to the three major types of symbioses and apply these concepts to microbial organisms on a&nbsp;symbiotic continuum. Next, the students are given examples of mutualistic bacteria, i.e., the human microbiome, through a mini lecture prepared by the instructor. The students are then introduced to examples of parasitic/pathogenic microbes that can interfere with human health and cause relatable diseases (e.g., diarrhea, STDs, and athlete&rsquo;s foot). Students then apply this information through a short matching game before learning&nbsp;common practices used to prevent the spread of these pathogens, including an active learning exercise and video on how to wash their hands like healthcare professionals. Finally, students are asked to generate their own questions about microbes before working through a handout that guides&nbsp;the students through using the scientific method to&nbsp;address&nbsp;their questions. This exercise thus provides students with the autonomy to ask their own questions about microbes, design their own experiments, prepare growth media their own way, and present their findings in a way that is both scalable for large class sizes and reduces the burden of lab prep common for microbiology labs.&nbsp; <em>Primary image:</em>&nbsp;Microbes sampled from the iPhone of a curious individual. Fungal colonies can be seen as fuzzy, white or colorful mounds while bacteria appear as opaque, smooth streaks on the media.

Online (Remote) Teaching for Laboratory Based Courses Using “digital Twins” of the Experiments

Abstract Covid-19 pandemic has introduced radical changes to the engineering education so that most of the teaching moved to the off-campus setting of online classes. However, conducting the laboratory classes, a fundamental part of engineering education has remained to be a challenge. To address to this situation, an ambitious approach is taken to re-establish the laboratory experience entirely online with the help of digital twins of the laboratory experiments. Laboratory based undergraduate courses are important parts of the curriculum at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences (HSLU), Switzerland. During the Covid-19 pandemic, it was necessary to adapt to the new environment of remote learning and modify the laboratory experiments so that they can be carried out online. The approach was to develop digital twins of each laboratory experiment with web applications and to provide an environment together with supporting videos and interactive problems so that the laboratory experiments can be carried out remotely. This paper explains the development of the digital twins of the laboratory experiments and provides information about the selected experiments such as potential vortex, linear momentum equation, diffuser flow, radial compressor, fuel cell, and pump test rig. A remote or distance learning has many hurdles, a major one being how to teach hands-on laboratory courses outside of an actual laboratory. The experience at the HSLU showed that teaching online laboratories using the digital twins of the experiments can work and the students can take part in remote laboratories that meet the learning objectives.

Fostering Performance in Hands-On Laboratory Work with the Use of Mobile Augmented Reality (AR) Glasses

The learning of laboratory skills is essential in science education, but students often get too little individual guidance in this area. Augmented reality (AR) technologies are a promising tool to tackle this challenge and promote students’ high-level learning and performance in science laboratories. Thus, the purpose of this study was (1) to design an AR-assisted learning environment to support individual knowledge construction, (2) to investigate students’ learning processes and learning outcomes and (3) to examine the usability of the system. Pharmacy students (n = 16) were assigned to experimental (n = 10) and control (n = 6) groups and performed the same laboratory work together with pre- and post-tests. The experimental group worked with AR glasses that provided additional support and timely guidance during the work with additional info-screens, questions related to choosing correct reagents and laboratory tools and think-aloud questions, whereas the control group worked in a traditional laboratory context. The results showed that AR was more effective in fostering performance in the science laboratory compared to traditional laboratory instruction and prevented most of the mistakes. The AR group considered the guidance and feedback provided by AR to be beneficial for their learning. However, no apparent differences were found in tasks measuring students’ understanding of the content knowledge. Thus, an AR environment embedded with supportive tools could partly replace the teacher in science teaching laboratories by providing individual and timely guidance for the students.

Student Perceptions of Remote Chemistry Laboratory Delivery Models

The COVID-19 pandemic of Spring 2020 saw chemistry instructors across the globe working to deliver traditional hands-on laboratory learning within a remote learning environment. This study focused on the student perspective on remote laboratory delivery models across 13 Fall 2020 chemistry courses with students from all four years of undergraduate study and varying declared majors. For those students who were able to experience in-person laboratory experiments, the majority indicated that they were of high value to their overall learning experience. Specifically, the students noted that the value of the in-person experiential laboratory learning was tied to their ability to learn and practice their technical skills while putting the theory learned in class into practical context and application. Remote laboratory alternatives in the form of video-recorded experiments and online simulations were seen to be less valuable to the overall student learning experience. While students indicated that they highly valued in-person laboratory experiences and would like to see them continually implemented within their learning experiences, careful design and implementation of remote alternatives may provide meaningful alternatives when in-person laboratory instruction is not possible or perhaps enhance already existing laboratory curricula.

Students’ Learning Experiences and Preference in Performing Science Experiments Using Hands-on and Virtual Laboratory

This study investigated the hands-on and virtual laboratory learning experiences and laboratory preference of 91 students in performing science experiments. This study utilized a descriptive-correlation research design. The study revealed that students had positive learning experiences towards hands-on laboratory in terms of thinking, understanding, performing, and reasoning than in the virtual laboratory. Moreover, most of them highly preferred hands-on laboratories in terms of learning environment, motivation and enjoyment, stimulation of active learning, comfort, and convenience. The students’ preferences in the different laboratory settings were significantly different. Hence, there was a moderate correlation between students’ learning experiences and their laboratory preference in the hands-on laboratory. Meanwhile, there was a strong correlation between these two variables in a virtual laboratory. It is recommended to the educational institutions to enhance and strengthen their supports through providing complete laboratory facilities to the schools. Additionally, the teachers should continuously integrate laboratories to support the theoretical understanding of students in various science lessons. Importantly, the teachers and students should be innovative in performing experiments especially due to the limited instructional resources in this time of new normal.

Anatomical self-efficacy of undergraduate students improves during a fully online biology course with at-home dissections.

Student enrollments in online college courses have grown steadily over the past decade, and college administrators expect this trend to continue or accelerate. Despite the growing popularity of online education, one major critique in the sciences is that students are not trained in the hands-on skills they may need for the workforce, graduate school, or professional school. For example, the Association of American Medical Colleges has recommended that medical schools evaluate applicants on their motor skills and observation skills, yet many online biology programs do not offer opportunities for students to develop these skills. In on-campus biology programs, students commonly develop these skills through hands-on animal dissections, but educators have struggled with how to teach dissections in an online environment. We designed a fully online undergraduate biology course that includes at-home, hands-on dissections of eight vertebrate specimens. Over three course offerings, we evaluated changes in four student outcomes: anatomical self-efficacy, confidence in laboratory skills, perceptions of support, and concerns about dissections. Here, we describe how we implemented at-home dissections in the online course and show that students taking the course gained anatomical self-efficacy and confidence in multiple laboratory skills. Based on open-ended responses, the students perceived that their experiences with the at-home dissections facilitated these gains. These results demonstrate that at-home, hands-on laboratories are a viable approach for teaching practical skills to students in fully online courses. We encourage science instructors to introduce at-home laboratories into their online courses, and we provide recommendations for instructors interested in implementing at-home laboratories.

Establishing diagnostic algorithms for SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid testing in clinical practice.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has become a global pandemic. Our laboratory initially used a two-step molecular assay, first reported by Corman et al, for SARS-CoV-2 identification (the Taiwan Center for Disease Control [T-CDC] method). As rapid and accurate diagnosis of COVID-19 is required to control the spread of this infectious disease, the current study evaluated three commercially available assays, including the TaqPath COVID-19 Combo kit, the cobas SARS-CoV-2 test, and the Rendu 2019-nCoV Assay kit, to establish diagnostic algorithms for clinical laboratories. A total of 790 clinical specimens, including nasopharyngeal swabs, throat swabs, sputum, saliva, stool, endotracheal aspirate, and serum were obtained from patients who were suspected or already confirmed to have COVID-19 at the Taipei Veterans General Hospital from February to May 2020. These specimens were tested for SARS-CoV-2 using the different assays and the performance variance between the assays was analyzed. Of the assays we evaluated, the T-CDC method and the TaqPath COVID-19 Combo kit require lots of hands-on practical laboratory work, while the cobas SARS-CoV-2 test and the Rendu 2019-nCoV Assay kit are fully automated detection systems. The T-CDC method and the TaqPath COVID-19 Combo kit showed similar detection sensitivity; however, the T-CDC method frequently delivered false-positive signals for envelope (E) and/or RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP) gene detection, thus increasing the risk of reporting false-positive results. A manual test-based testing strategy combining the T-CDC method and the TaqPath COVID-19 Combo kit was developed, which demonstrated excellent concordance rates (>99%) with the cobas and Rendu automatic systems. There were a few cases showing discrepant results, which may be due to the varied detection sensitivities as well as targets among the different platforms. Moreover, the concordance rate between the cobas and Rendu assays was 100%. Based on our evaluation, two SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic algorithms, one focusing on the manual assays and the other on the automatic platforms, were proposed. Our results provide valuable information that allows clinical laboratories to implement optimal diagnostic strategies for SARS-CoV-2 testing based on their clinical needs, such as test volume, turn-around time, and staff/resource limitations.

Implementation of a Socially Distanced In-Person Laboratory Experience Across the Chemistry Curriculum during the COVID-19 Pandemic at a Small, Liberal Arts University

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the mass shutdown of universities across the United States in the spring of 2020. As the pandemic progressed, regional regulations resulted in a broad range of teaching modalities for the 2020-2021 academic year. While some regions remained tightly locked down (resulting in online-only instruction), others allowed limited or full campus operations within higher education. Located in Spokane, WA, Whitworth University is a small, liberal arts university which was allowed limited operations under a socially distanced model. While the pandemic resulted in some obvious campus changes (for example, masks were required on campus), more subtle changes were required at the curricular level. Adopting a flex model where students and faculty were allowed the option to participate online only while in-person classes were offered, Whitworth maintained in-person education through the 2020-2021 academic year. This FLEX model presented specific difficulties to laboratory courses due to social distancing restrictions. In this work, we describe five models developed in the Whitworth University Department of Chemistry toward teaching laboratories in a socially distanced manner with reduced room capacity. The primary modes of instruction were (1) a reduction of in-person laboratory time so that only half of the students were working in the laboratory at any given time, (2) an alternating weeks model where students came to the laboratory every other week and performed online laboratory experiences in the off weeks, (3) a split room model where one faculty member oversaw two laboratory spaces containing one-half of the normal number of students, (4) a higher number of smaller lab sections where social distancing could be maintained, and (5) a hybrid technique utilizing several of these concepts dependent upon the learning outcomes of the laboratory procedure each week. Benefits and challenges for each model are described by faculty herein. End-of-semester student course evaluation scores provide a comparison of student perceptions of learning outcomes and experiences in the laboratory in the various models. In addition, grade point averages were compared to prior years. Finally, departmental leadership provides insight on the administrative challenges of implementing these course models. Statistically, the models presented no significant change in student perceptions of learning or grade point averages for most courses regardless of the model when compared to prior offerings of these courses. Overall, the implementation of these protocols allowed students hands-on laboratory experiences with a minimal impact on the curriculum presented. ©

Virtual chemical laboratories: A systematic literature review of research, technologies and instructional design

Practical laboratory courses are an essential part of chemistry education. However, they can be costly and time-consuming. They also require physical presence of the teacher and students and access to well-equipped laboratories, which can be hindered due to equipment cost or a pandemic lockdown. Virtual chemical laboratories are digital tools that become very useful in these situations, but what research has been done on these tools and what elements are important in terms of technology and instructional design? This systematic literature review presents an extensive overview of previous research and addresses the different types of technology and instructional design elements. Results of this study show that virtual labs can be more effective than passive teaching methods (e.g., lecture, text and video), but show equal or greater effectiveness compared to hands-on laboratory. Better results are shown when virtual labs and traditional methods are combined. Most of the included studies use 3D Desktop technology, while immersive VR technology is trending in the last few years. This review also identified instructional design elements used in context of virtual chemical labs, for example, inquiry-based learning, modality, instructional scaffolding. Virtual laboratories can be used as an effective complementary tool or temperate alternative to real hands-on laboratory, but future research should put more emphasis in investigating skill-based learning outcomes using immersive VR and NUI technologies and in considering instructional design in virtual chemical laboratories.

486 Comparison Between Online and In-person Instruction in a Laboratory-based Animal Science Course

Abstract Online teaching has been rapidly integrated into laboratory-based learning environments across all disciplines due to the 2019 pandemic. With such an abrupt transition to online instruction, the quality of traditional instruction in laboratory-based courses is in question. The objective of this study was to determine if a hands-on laboratory could be effectively taught online. This study compared the academic achievement and perception of students (n = 163) in an Introduction to Animal Science course where half the course instruction was online, and half was in-person. Student achievement was measured from weekly quizzes, and two major exams, a midterm and final, testing material covered online and in-person, respectively. All statistics were analyzed using JMP Pro 14. Exam scores were correlated to quiz scores to assess output to input, and were strongly correlated. A 10% increase in quiz performance resulted in a 1% increase in exam performance for both types of instruction (P &amp;lt; 0.01). There is no difference in this effect between material delivered online, and in-person. The efficacy of the method of instruction was measured by student surveys. Meeting style preference of students was different between instruction methods, where student preference shifted from asynchronous (40% to 11.6%) to hybrid instruction (39.6% to 69.5%), with no change in virtual preference (P &amp;lt; 0.01; P = 0.14). Student perception of quiz and exam question fairness was different where students thought question fairness increased between online and in-person instruction for quizzes and exams, respectively (P &amp;lt; 0.01; P &amp;lt; 0.01). In conclusion, there are no differences in student performance based on grades between online and in-person instruction; however, student perception of meeting style and assessment question fairness improved when students were taught in-person. As a result, laboratory-based science courses can be successfully transitioned to online instruction.

IoT-Based Lab System for Teaching Methods in Times of Crisis

The revolution of communication technology has enabled people to communicate easily with others and perform many tasks from a distance. The Internet plays an important role in communication and helps to perform tasks and make people's lives easier. It led to the introduction of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology, where physical objects are connected to the Internet to perform a specific task. So that IoT can be a valuable tool in times of crisis, most modern industries can produce their products automatically and remote monitor and control the system. The same technique can be applied to overcome face-to-face teaching in science and engineering education during times of crisis. This research proposes the design and development of an IoT-based hands-on laboratory system that can be operated remotely. The methodology has been implemented and worked based on the concept of virtual reality. The research has been carried out for two simple electrical laboratory experiments: the basic logic gate and Ohm’s Law experiment. The experimental results show that the system can be implemented since the results obtained are satisfy their theoretical results. Furthermore, an improvement can be made so that the system can be integrated with the Internet and the system can function efficiently.