Integrating STEM Laboratory Instruction at the Introductory Level - Opportunities and Challenges
Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 2016, Volume 37
Gregory McGee & Neal Abrams
Abstract
Introductory courses offer unique challenges for STEM educators to engage students who often view these
courses simply as prerequisite or general education requirements. Even students who are pursuing STEM
majors frequently struggle to see how introductory courses relate to their anticipated professions or apply to
the "real world." Lower-division coursework tends to be compartmentalized with limited purposeful
linkages in content and skills across disciplines. Although interdisciplinary linkages are eventually made in
upper-division courses and synthesis experiences, these courses are sequenced at risk of missing
opportunities to improve student engagement and reinforce important content and skills development
during initial exposure. We have taken a novel approach to integrate laboratory investigations between our
General Biology and General Chemistry courses in an attempt to build a contextual framework for
synthesizing knowledge across disciplines, develop proficiency in laboratory skills, and improve attitudes
toward science. During this mini-workshop participants will explore and discuss their perceptions of the
challenges and benefits of integrating lower-division laboratory instruction among STEM disciplines, and
we will share our experiences with integrating our particular laboratory courses during the last three years.
For example at the beginning of their first semester, students used Chemistry laboratory to practice using
balances, glassware and probes to inform a field ecology investigation for their General Biology lab. Later
students applied new solution preparation skills to prepare experimental nutrient solutions to investigate
bacterial growth under equal molar concentrations of different forms of inorganic nitrogen. In a
longitudinal investigation spanning both semesters, students explored parallels between electron release by
plant pigments (from blackberries) to create electrical currents in mini-solar cells, to the detection of
reducing capacity by intact chloroplasts using dye-coupled reactions. Students then used column
chromatography to isolate and collect plant pigments in order to create a composite light absorption
spectrum that then informed a controlled experiment on the effect of light quality on photosynthesis.
Keywords: chemistry
Boston University (2015)
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