1.1 Mastery of Subject Matter

Enhance student understanding of specific scientific facts and concepts and the way in which these facts and concepts are organized in the scientific disciplines.
In order to use science lab experiences to aid subject matter mastery, labs must have supporting material that helps students. At the upper left, you can see a reduced image of a warm up page. This page includes a brief description, goals and objectives, and a series of questions designed so that students begin to think about the topic and, possibly, to challenge their preconceptions.

At the upper right is the beginning of a post-lab quiz that helps students to consider the science investigated with the experiments. Students can review their experimental work and support materials during this quiz.

The lower image shows the vocabulary and scientist mini-biography taken from the same Cell Respiration lab. The vocabulary list links to a hyperlinked list of all words related to this lab.

Not shown above is the Procedure page, which has additional background material on this lab, a procedure discussion when warranted, and information on errors, graphs, apparatus, units, and more. Also not shown are the fully worked out solutions for all quiz questions and the Solution Strategy page that explains principles in more detail and provides some sample worked-out problems.

All of this material creates a greater mastery of the science illustrated by the experiments being performed by the students.

1.2 Clear Learning Outcomes

Design of lab includes clearly stated learning outcomes.
Every one of these virtual labs has a full activity plan to support teacher and curriculum writers. The first image above is the header for the plan and includes the purpose and goals of the lab for use by the teacher. The second image is taken from an introduction to one of the lab units and will be seen by both students and teachers.

2.1 Scientific Reasoning

Identify questions and concepts that guide scientific investigations; develop and revise scientific explanations and models; recognize and analyze alternative explanations and models; and make and defend a scientific argument.
Scientific reasoning covers many areas of the science lab experience. In the beginning, as indicated in the top image above in the blue region, students should decide on a specific question they're investigating. Here, they decide to find out whether increasing weight also increases friction. They then run experiments that attempt to refute this prediction.

After the experiments are complete, they review their data. The bottom left image above shows data from one experiment displayed in three different formats so that comparisons are more readily made. Students can copy and paste these into other programs. For example, they might wish to do additional analysis on the data and can copy and paste the data table into a spreadsheet.

The bottom right image above shows the last portion of an example lab report format. Here, students are requested to explain their data and discuss the results including graphs and error analysis. They also must defend their conclusions.

2.2 Reflection & Discussion

Defending conclusions based on data and analysis of data; comparing results with other sources and explaining differences.
Most science labs provide little opportunity for reflection and discussion. These activities are left to the instructor. Few, if any, virtual labs directly support these goals. Smart Science® lab units support these goals by retaining student data and other work for very long times in a database and by explicitly requesting students to explore outside data sources in Further Explorations for many lab units. They also explicitly require students to defend their conclusions in the online Lab Report.

3.1 Empirical Work, Precision

Students understand the complexity and ambiguity of empirical work; they take notice of precision issues.
With real experiments, random error is a normal part of the data. The example on the left is a simple graphing experiment that tracks the motion of a person walking. Uneven walking motion must create random error.

The right image shows an experiment that tracks the tides over a day. The rough water worsens precision. The data must have random error that cannot be eliminated through careful data collection. Of course, sloppy data collection can inject random error into any experiment.

3.2 Empirical Work, Accuracy

Students understand the complexity and ambiguity of empirical work; they take notice of accuracy issues.
Even with a simple experiment such as a falling object, accuracy depends on the calibration. Above left, the vertical scale must translate image pixels into meters. Due to the camera position, this scale factor varies over the course of the object's fall. Also, the scale value depends on a prior calibration step that may be inaccurate.

Above right is an experiment in photosynthesis. Even though the measurements made with a spectrometer are good, the experiment's quality also depends on several factors including the quality of red, green, and blue color filters and on the ability of a light meter to determine intensity accurately for different colors. In this lab, the green filter allows enough adjacent colors through to cause more photosynthesis than textbooks suggest. Students are given some clues and must account for the discrepancy. Using LED light sources would eliminate one of the sources of systematic error.

3.3 Empirical Work, Bad Data

Students take notice of serious experimental errors.

The lab data on the left shows a normal experiment with a reasonably straight line fit to transpiration data from the pictured plant cutting. The student follows the position of the water in the vertical capillary on the right side of the image. The rate of transpiration remains fairly constant during the experiment resulting in a straight line.

The lab data on the right illustrates an equipment failure. The slope is much too high compared to the other experiments, and the data curves downward instead of having a constant slope. Students should notice these deviations from expected values. The most likely cause of faster liquid loss whose rate declines as the liquid level drops is a leak.

4.1 Experimental Design

Writing a description of an approach to solving a problem or undertaking a scientific investigation.

The two images above on the left show a possible implementation of a hydraulics experiment and materials being assembled for a freezing point lab. These are two of many wet labs where students enter the data online and can upload their own images of their experiments.

The wet lab procedure page provides hints and suggestions on possible experimental design and encourages students to try their own ideas.

Many hands-on experiments have been blended with online experiments to form "hybrid" labs that include data from both types of experimentation. The wet portion provides kinesthetic and design experience. The online experiments deliver science not available at home or, sometimes, even in well-equipped classrooms. The image on the right shows equipment assembled for a hydrate analysis. The top shows the online apparatus, and the bottom illustrates a possible set of materials for the at-home portion.

4.2 Making Observations

Students make and record observations of their experiments.
Students observe virtual and do-it-yourself experiments and record their observations.

The top image has students recording solubility results for a wide variety of solvents and solutes.

The bottom images show recording observations from a virtual and a do-it-yourself lab. The students count cells in various stages of reproduction.

4.3 Taking Measurements

Students learn to use measurement devices and to record data with correct precision.
Virtual labs can readily provide opportunities for students to take readings from equipment. The left example above is taken from a redox titration lab. Students read the meniscus and enter the reading. An instructor can check the student response in the lab report data table for correct accuracy and precision.

The right image above is taken from the Measurement activity and shows a triple-beam balance that must be read by students. Students get an indication of whether they have the correct value and precision. Other measurement readings include an analog electrical multimeter, a buret, a meter stick, a spring scale, an analog spectrometer, and so on.

4.4 Carrying Out Procedures

Students learn to read and understand procedures before carrying them out and to adapt them as required.
Some may object that scientists don't follow procedures. Actually, they do. Much of a scientist's work is routine and repetitious. Futhermore, one scientist will follow another's procedure in order to duplicate the second scientist's work, either to check it or as prelude to extending it.

The real problem with "cookbook" labs is not that students have a procedure to follow but that the result is known in advance. Students can deviate from given procedures if they know what they're doing. Generally, they should have permission of the instructor to do so for safety reasons.

The images above show portions of the Procedure page from the Thin Layer Chromatography hybrid lab's wet lab. Students are encouraged to consider alternate procedures and are provided with sufficient instructions to succeed in creating a paper chromatogram.

4.5 Equipment Skills

Students learn to operate laboratory equipment.

5.1 Nature of Science

Values and assumptions inherent in the development and interpretation of scientific knowledge.
Students studying and interpreting data from the material world necessarily discover that different people may interpret the same data differently. Each person's preconceptions may affect the final conclusions.

The image on the top left shows balls being dropped from a pier. Students expect, because of prior instruction, that all balls will fall with the same acceleration. This lab illustrates the fallacy of this view.

The image at top right shows a pendulum in the Pendulum and Mass lab. Students expect that the period will change with mass. It doesn't, and students learn from trying it out for themselves. Unlike a simulated lab, students don't have to have faith that the simulation truly models the material world.

The bottom image shows the Animal Behavior lab. Here, the bugs move to the 0.1 M sodium hydroxide side, against expectations. Students may try to make the data fit their preconceptions in these labs. Class discussions or instructor advice should help them to overcome their errors, and they'll discover that science is not as simple or as "black and white" as they may have thought.

5.2 Material World Data

Students observe objects and phenomena and collect data from the material world. Data, objects, and phenomena are not simulated.
Making virtual labs using simulations is quite an easy task. The equations for many phenomena have been published so that even a non-scientist programmer can create simulations. However, simulations produce data created by a programmer's pencil, not the real world and do not include random error. Students won't collect data point by point because there's no point. Limits in the theory aren't encountered. Students learn that theories and data are precise, a very bad learning outcome.

The example above is from the Smart Science® Photoelectric Effect lab. On the left is the apparatus with four ultraviolet LED lights. On the right is a frame from the data collection video. The work a student does mimics exactly what they'd do in face-to-face labs. You can readily program this lab as a simulation, but it won't have the reality or the uncertainty associated with real world investigations.

Although online real labs take more effort to produce, they do use data from the material world. As a science lab experience, only material world objects, data, and pheomena should be used. Because they can be used for online science lab experiences, they should be.

6.1 Interest in Science

Cultivate interest in science and interest in learning science – make science "come alive."
If a science lab fulfills all of the other goals, then this one should follow readily. The two examples shown above illustrate how "alive" science can become if lab experiences are not limited to routine classroom labs and artificial simulations.

No one would question the aliveness of the left image taken from a video of balls falling off of the Manhattan Beach pier, an icon in Southern California. Similarly, seeing real tides in a bay at Cape Cod, Massachusetts provides a realistic backdrop to understanding the concepts behind tides that exceeds any animation in interest.

7.1 Teamwork

Collaborate effectively with others in carrying out complex tasks, share the work of the task, contribute and respond to ideas.
Few, if any, virtual labs systems are designed to support teamwork directly. Many even thwart attempts at providing teamwork. The Smart Science® system allows students to collaborate in a variety of ways.

1. Discuss choices for hypotheses or predictions before beginning experimentation (top image).
2. Share ideas for equipment design and source for materials in wet experiments, either stand-alone or hybrid.
3. Collaborate on the experiment design, writing a team document that explains how equipment will be built, data will be collected, and analysis will be done.
4. Share data by using "copy and paste" to provide copies of data to other students in the same team (second image).
5. Combine data and images from several students into a group report that could be a slide show (e.g. Powerpoint) or a document (e.g. Word).
6. Use "copy and paste" to share conclusions or other aspects of the lab report among the team.

Right now, students can use email and shared documents (e.g. Google Docs) to work together across large geographical distances. New features in software can further support these collaboration mechanisms.

1.1 Goals and objectives are measurable and clearly state what the participants will know or be able to do at the end of the lab or investigation

"Effective laboratory experiences have clear learning goals that guide the design of the experience. Ideally these goals are clearly communicated to students." ALR, p. 101.
This integration goal is quite similar to the lab experience goal of "Clear Learning Outcomes" in section B. It expands on the idea, especially as it applies to the overall curriculum.

The left image shows what students see repeatedly during a lab, and the right image is from a teacher's activity plan.

2.1 Sequence lab into the flow of classroom science instruction

"Effective laboratory experiences are thoughtfully sequenced into the flow of classroom science instruction. That is, they are explicitly linked to what has come before and what will come after." ALR, p. 102.
This integration goal refers more to the curriulum than to the lab experience itself. A single set of closely related experiments, a science "lab," must be integrated with other learning activities in order to have optimal impact on learning about science.

For a course unit investigating the behavior of pendulums, Smart Science® labs are provided that look at change in mass, change in length, and change in swing amplitude separately. These can be sequenced into a basic curriculum so that students discover each effect.

A more advanced curriculum has access to the Pendulum Investigation lab where students decide which parameter to investigate and how to investigate it. Course designers should take care not to provide the relationship of pendulum period to the length, mass, and amplitude of the pendulum before students do the labs. Students should not have been told the ideal equation for the period of a pendulum beforehand.

The images above provide a small sample of the many pendulums that the students can study. Students may note the decay of amplitude for the cork pendulum bob compared with the steel and brass ones shown. They also have wood, aluminum, and brass bobs.

3.1 Integrate science content with the processes of science

"...conceptual understanding, scientific reasoning, and practical skills are three capabilities that are not mutually exclusive. "...integration of content and process promotes attainment of several goals identified by the committee." ALR, p. 102.
Science investigations should automatically provide students with both content and process. Unfortunately, many "typical" lab experiences simply allow students to validate as concept already taught and to do so mechanically. Labs like the one illustrated above, provide students with the opportunity to confront the realities of scientific investigation and to understand the processes of science while learning content first-hand.

The white plus marks are data points chosen interactively by the student. No data are precollected or precalculated.

Proper use of scientific investigation in instruction uses process to access content.

4.1 Communicating to learn

"Laboratory experiences are more likely to be effective when they focus students more on discussing the activities they have done during their laboratory experiences and reflecting on the meaning they can make from them, than on the laboratory activities themselves. Crucially, the focus of laboratory experiences and the surrounding instructional activities should not simply be on confirming presented ideas, but on developing explanations to make sense of patterns of data." ALR, p. 102.
This goal relies on students writing a report on their experiences and on discussions among groups of students, preferably moderated by their instructor. Consequently, a virtual lab system should support these two activities as much as possible. The example shown above comes from an online lab report and shows a portion of the report. After answering some questions designed to require thinking about experiments performed, students write about their experiments. Lab design carefully avoids providing an answer ahead of investigation.

The lab report format allows students to copy and paste data tables, graphs, and other images into documents such as reports and presentations. Instructor materials emphasize allowing students to discover for themselves and to share their ideas with fellow students.