Filed under: Main Page
Teaching with Virtual Labs in Science
MAHETC
July 2007
J Hoeffner
Mardela Middle High School
http://mmhssciencehoeffner.edublogs.org/
http://mmhshoeffnersscience.wikispaces.com/
Hands-on labs in Science are wonderful, exciting and necessary for student understanding, and I would never advocate replacing them. But after 30 years in the classroom, I am delighted to have another tool to use in teaching middle school science. Sometimes you don’t have the available materials - who has proton accelerators - sometimes the concept is so abstract, the kids just don’t ‘get it’ - sometimes they just need to look at it in a different way. After all, recent studies show that most students need to have 4 or more meaningful dialogues with a concept before they can expect mastery. So I love virtual labs, they:
- capture students’ interest
- offer students an alternative learning modality
- offer students additional practice / exposure to a concept
- supplement traditional labs
- offer virtual experimentation with materials you cannot get or use in school
So here are some of my favorite virtual labs to use before, after or to supplement traditional labs.
Free:
EDS Destination Mars:
This teaches / reviews Newton’s Laws of Motion while planning and mission to Mars. Helps students to understand the concepts of payload, fuel, rockets, trajectory, computing launch date, launch sequence, cruise time, insertion point and outcome of your mission. I have used this with 8th graders, it is worth your time and effort.
EDS Wetlands, Frogs in Focus: In this lab you will collect bullfrogs, both tadpoles and adults in a Louisiana wetland – accompanied by Cajun music. In your research you learn how changes in one population can affect another. I have not used this yet, but I plan on it this year.
Maryland Thinkport: - if you have not signed up for this yet, you are really missing out. Click on Online Field Trips, then click on Bayville. Bayville is loaded with many activities, plan on several days.
Ball and ramp simulation:
Practice changing ramp height and even change the force of gravity.
Science Lab:
Only a couple of labs here but some cool links I’ve not seen before.
The Mighty Mutation Maker:
This site makes a pretend section of DNA out of your name, then proceeds to show what happens with the following mutations and explains what is expressed: missense, nonsense, silent insertion, deletion.
Virtual Courseware:
Good simulations for EarthScience phenonmena – I will use this with my new 9th grade EarthScience class I inherited.
Virtual Pond dip:
Helps students identify microscopic pond life.
Virtual Labs and simulations:
Loooooots of physics simulations.
Funderstanding Roller Coaster:
Design a coaster to achieve maximum thrills – but keep your coaster on the track!
The Paper Airplane Flight Simulator: http://www.workman.com/etcetera/games/fliersclub/
I’ve used this – do a regular paper airplane lab first, then do the virtual one, discuss thrust, drag, lift etc. then schedule the Great Paper Airplane Flyoff – have preliminary heats in your classroom, then take those winners to the gym and invite the other grades. With middle and high school, we could get some high school students to run to the show, judge, MC etc. Invite a local disc jockey to MC or maybe your science supervisor.
Teachers First.com: http://www.teachersfirst.com/20/tchr-subj-count.cfm?lower=9&subject=4&upper=12
Several simulations and some lessons.
NASA’s virtual microscope: http://learn.arc.nasa.gov/vlab/manual.html
Download the lab to view images through a scanning electron microscope (SEM).
NASA Scientific Visualization Studio: http://learn.arc.nasa.gov/svs/features.html
Download World Wind to explore visually intense animations that encompass the entire globe. These samples range from biosphere, sea temperature, carbon dioxide, ozone and more.
NASA What’s the Difference: http://learn.arc.nasa.gov/wtd/index.html
Customizable compare and contrast tool for students studying the solar system.
JFK Space Center Interactive media: http://imedia.ksc.nasa.gov/index1.html
Many cool interactive simulations, virtual tours and interactive multimedia. After visiting Space Camp, I will definitely be using these.
NASA Online / NASA Connect / NASA SciFiles: http://www.knowitall.org/nasa/scifiles/index.html
Videos with labs after them.
Glenn Learning Technologies Project: http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/aerosim/
Download applets for aerodynamics of baseballs, testing jet engines, rate and force problems, air foil and model of Martian atmosphere.
Fee based:
www.quia.com – not really a lab, but an online community of activities on all levels and in all disciplines. You can log on to the site and do any of the activities that are open to the public for free. All of the activities are made by teachers who have subscribed to Quia. A subscription to Quia is about $60 per year. I have gladly paid the fee, used the site and the kids have loved it for over 3 years. Once you have a subscription, all the activities you create are saved on the site for you. You can create, administer and score quizzes easily. It is just another tool to use and is especially good for remediation.
www.jasonproject.org – Jason is expensive and if you are lucky, your supervisor will pay for it for you, or you could write a grant for it. The curriculum for Jason is huge and every year they create a new PROJECT, with a new curriculum, online community and online labs. You also receive PROJECT videos which are new each year and they explain the current project, show real scientists doing real science, refer to labs that the students could do in the classroom. The best part of Jason, I believe, are their online labs. Most of their labs are written by EDS and they are simply awesome. I would willingly pay just to use the online labs. Try the digitial lab – Hurricane.
www.discoveryscienceconnection.com/sitenew/index.cfm - The best is last!!! This is absolutely the greatest resource for science I have ever seen. The labs are NOT as good or extensive as the EDS labs, but they are quick, catchy and there are lots of them. I am sincerely lobbying my county EdTech department and my supervisor to purchase this for us. Go to the site, sign up for the 30 day free trial and then check your email, they quickly get your link to you. Then explore. You can do everything with this that you can do with regular United Streaming, create assignments, assign assignments to one or many students, create, administer and score quizzes.
Which of these labs will fit your standards?
Which of these labs do you need to research further?
How are you going to implement the lab, as a learning station, small groups, individuals?
Will assess their work and if so how?
What needs to be done to be able to use one of these labs successfully?
Create a free edublog to get your own comment avatar (and more!)
1 Comment so far
Leave a comment
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
Thank you for a great session filled with useful websites and ideas. :o)