In 2012, three Schools in
Science (Biology, Chemistry & Physics) embarked on an audacious project to
reinvigorate their first year lab programs. We say audacious somewhat
tongue-in-cheek, as the simple aim of this project was get first year science
students to behave like real scientists in their undergraduate lab
classes.
Across the sciences, a typical
lab manual resembles a cookbook, dishing up recipes to students who tackle
these one at a time during three hour lab classes. The scientific recipe can be
a very useful approach for transitioning students from complete novices, to
having important lab skills including sample and chemical handling, learning to
use sophisticated equipment, and basic OH&S practices.
But when it comes to developing
genuine problem-solving and critical thinking skills, recipe or cookbook-type
approaches are limiting, and students need to be pushed to the next level. We identified
that our first year lab programs rarely prompted students to brainstorm and
design their own experiments, collaborate and delegate tasks within groups,
refer to the literature, or require them to reflect on their efforts at the end
of the experience.
Thus, the IDEA Experiments
were conceived, with the acronym based on:
Inquire ⇨ Design ⇨
Explore ⇨ Answer
summarising
the general scientific approach to solving unique problems. Specifically, it is
the inquiry process, followed by the design phase, which have traditionally
been by-passed in first year undergraduate lab classes.
From the outset, our
team identified that what we were planning constituted cultural change!
Nevermind the students, but our teaching teams themselves would have to be
introduced to this new approach to running their lab classes. One of the first
things we therefore did was bring lab demonstrators from all three Schools into
the one room, and put them through a completely unstructured inquiry and design
experience of their own. They were forced to think outside the box, co-operate
in teams of four, and accept the idea that there was not necessarily a right
way to solve the science-related problem, and that their demonstrator was not
going to provide all the answers. For many, this was an uncomfortable, but
enlightening process.
The next step was to design some
activities that first year students would actually be able to tackle! Some
activities were based on pre-existing recipe-style experiments, while others we
built from the ground up. Some were one-week pracs, while others were spread
across two weeks. The range of topics can been seen in our recent publication here.
Figure 1: Student reflections on the nature of the IDEA Experiments
A snapshot of the student
experience was captured through an evaluation completed at the end of each
activity. Not unexpectedly, the responses from students were varied, with many
thoroughly enjoying the experience, while many others felt very lost with what
they identified as a lack of guidance.
Most importantly though, there
is a clear picture that students saw the IDEA Experiments as being a lot more
like how real science works. It can be hard, unpredictable, a little
chaotic, and sometimes pleasantly surprising.
*The IDEA Experiments are the outcome from a collaboration between Dr Gerry Rayner (Biology), Mr Theo Hughes (Physics) and Dr Chris Thompson (Chemistry).