Today at work I stumbled into a major battle in science over virtual labs
vs
physical (hands-on) labs. The issue was whether virtual labs should be
allowed to substitute for physical labs in the sciences. It appears that
the College Board is very close to allowing AP courses to be taught with
virtual labs. A number of deans from the sciences and education were
responding that they thought the idea was terrible. Yet, to my
understanding, some institutes of higher ed allow such??? I was not able
to
find any research or policies/practices summarized for this issue.
Do any of you have science courses being taught without physical
"hands-on"
labs? Anyone know of universities doing this-or AP cl*****?
My own belief is that virtual labs can add a great deal to a classroom,
but
should never be the only type of lab. For example, running virtual labs
to determine the limiting reactant can be done for a dozen chemicals in a
few minutes. However, the student doesn't learn to work with the
chemicals,
set up apparatus, or see how reactions really work (including all of the
error that can be introduced). So, though the virtual lab helps
understanding, one gains far more from the physical lab. Of course, there
are some rare situations where virtual actually beats the physical. For
instance, a student can't really dissect the nucleus of a cell, but a
computer program that allows this to be done virtually can help with
understanding of the nucleus and its components.
Yesterday I heard it stated that pilots train on simulators and if
simulators were good enough for pilots, then virtual labs should be good
for
school students. In reality, simulator training is only a small part of
actual flight training. "Behind the stick" (real cockpit) training is
what
is so im****tant to pilots, to the point they must record every flight
minute
they attain. I never want to fly with a pilot who has only had simulator
training or be operated on by a doctor who has only virtual surgical
experience. That doesn't mean that virtual activities cannot be used to
help sharpen their skills or help them better understand their subjects-it
just shouldn't be the primary focus of their learning.
Finding the proper role for virtual labs in instruction and determining
proper "balance" of hands-on learning will likely become a major
discussion
among science education over the next few years. In fact, if I were a
betting person, I would bet that just as there were the math wars
(computation and memorization vs understanding) and reading wars (whole
language vs phonics), I imagine virtual vs physical labs will become the
science wars of the next 5-10 years.
The world is changing.
Thoughts? Comments?
Steve
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