Teaching Experimental Science in a Time of Social Distancing
Phoenix666 writes:
When lockdown measures were announced in France and other countries, secondary-school teachers and university professors had to quickly make the transition from classroom teaching to remote education. As a result, practical work was often abandoned-experiments were no longer possible without a lab, test tubes, oscilloscopes and other equipment.
To overcome this problem, some educators used digital simulations, while others analysed existing data. But people familiar with experimental science know that simulations and simple analysis do not replace the lab bench and real experiments. The role of science is to help us to understand everyday phenomena and "real" experiments are absolutely essential.
As academics working in the field of physics, we have been reflecting about developing new forms of practical work that allows for greater student autonomy for several years now. At Universite de Bordeaux and Paris-Saclay, we asked our students to create their own experiment, and in some cases, to conduct them independently with smartphones or Arduino boards, an open-source solution for experiments with electronics.
Lockdown was a great chance to test autonomous practical work, so we jumped on it immediately. During the two months of French lockdown-it began on March 17 and ended May 11-we adapted and continued to teach using experiments without compromising the quality of content. These "life-size" tests convinced us that it is possible to remotely conduct lessons with experiments for both secondary-school teachers and higher-education professors. We have even observed very positive aspects of this new approach. It changes the student's relationship with science and with their teachers.
Professor Felix Hoenikker did fine with bits of string and children's toys when he developed Ice-nine, so why can't we?
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