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Courtney Nelson
English 250
Ms. Pike
29 September 2011
Debate on Virtual Science Labs
The world today is becoming more and more technologically related. Schools are
involving more ways to use the internet and other online systems and software. I am sure we all
know what a science class is and in this age of technology, I am sure we all know what virtual
things are, but think about a virtual science class. Would we learn more or would we just slack
off because it’s online and we students usually end up on Facebook? I know from experience
when I’m working on my organic chemistry lab reports (which we have to do in Word and turn
in online) I sometimes get distracted and end up on Facebook talking to someone about other
things that don’t relate to school.
Some online things cause major problems, I think, in the use of virtual labs. You could
have anything from the software not installing properly, computer freezes, and any other
technical difficulties. Now if you put the virtual stuff together with a hands-on lab, you could get
the effects of both. If your computer messes up in the lab, you still have the results from the
hands-on part and the same the other way around.
On October 20th, 2006, a writer named Sam Dillion wrote an article for the NY Times
titled, “No Test Tubes? Debate on Virtual Science Classes.” Dillion discussed some of the things
that have preceded the start of using virtual chemistry labs. He wrote, “When the Internet was
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just beginning to shake up American education, a chemistry professor photographed thousands
of test tubes holding molecular solutions and, workings with video game designers, created a
simulated laboratory that allowed students to mix chemicals in virtual beakers and watch the
reactions.” Now that would be cool to see how crazy some reactions go about when you mix two
compounds together. Mixing something like hydrochloric acid (aq HCl) and sodium hydroxide
(NaOH) causes a mini explosion in sense. Ha, just ask one of my friends who decided to do that
one day in lab because he was bored.
Now, the whole debate on virtual science class has many “skeptical university
professors,” AKA the College Board. The College Board is “one of the most powerful
organizations in American educations…” they are “questioning whether Internet-based
laboratories are an acceptable substitute for the hands-on culturing of gels and peering through
microscopes that have been long essential ingredients of American laboratory science,” (Dillion).
Wouldn’t you want to be able to do things hands-on so you can learn by experience and
mistakes? It is like when are parents always say we should learn from our mistakes.
One of the top virtual science software industries is called Smart Science education.
According to Smart Science education, the definition of a laboratory experience is that
“Laboratory experiences provide opportunities to interact directly with the material world (or
with data drawn from the material world), using the tools, data collection techniques, models,
and theories of science,’ (Smart Science education). Smart Science educators believe that
“simulations can have pedagogical value, but this value does not include substituting for true
laboratory experience no matter how well designed or well integrated the simulation is….Many
hands-on experiences have been blended with online experiments to form ‘hybrid’ labs that
include date from both types of experimentation,” (Smart Science education).
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Blending the two types of labs would allow for many different results to occur. Some
may be good but some may be bad. In an experiment done at a University, two different studies
were discussed. Study 1 was “to evaluate the effectiveness of the Virtual Laboratory for learning
about the spatial structure of the laboratory and the items of apparatus and equipment contained
within in it,” (Dalgarno). There was a virtual lab group and a real lab group. The results of study
1 concluded, “Learning by exploring the real laboratory is likely to be more effective that
learning by exploring the Virtual Laboratory but the difference is fairly small,” (Dalgarno).
In study 2, it was “designed to assess the usefulness of the Virtual Laboratory as a
preparatory tool for university chemistry students studying at a distance, in advance of their
residential laboratory sessions,” (Dalgarno). The results of the second study concluded that “only
a minority of the students chose to use the Virtual Laboratory, those who did in general found it
useful, but we were not able to identify a clear effect on the confidence and anxiety of students,”
(Dalgarno).
Overall, the first study “suggested that the Virtual Laboratory can be an effective tool to
help students develop their familiarity with the laboratory environment prior to their laboratory
sessions. I think that is what should be done.
In an interview with Joseph Burnett, one of Iowa State University’s chemistry professors,
Burnett stated that virtual science labs “don’t give important experiences, like hands-on
experience. You don’t get the spillage and mistakes. You lose the understanding of importance
of laboratory safety and statistics, like the uncertainty in measurements,” (Burnett Personal
Interview). Dr. Burnett has a good point. If we don’t learn from our mistakes then it’s as if we’re
going through life through the motions and we don’t learn anything. We’re like blobs just doing
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nothing. If we do hands-on experiments, we are able to slow down and actually look at the detail
in the types of experiments that we do.
Dr. Burnett also sent me an email with a link to a website called “Late Nite Labs.” Late
Nite Labs is a website allows you to do a free demo of a virtual chemistry or biology lab. I took
the liberty of doing a chemistry lab demo since I’m a chemistry major. I found it interesting but
after messing around with it for a little while, I decided that I don’t think I could really do that
for every single lab.
I’m more of a visual learner and when it comes to things that involve math, there better
be something visual to go along with it otherwise there would be no way that I would come up
with the right answer. However, when I think about an virtual science class, things like, “Would
it really help me to learn that way or what?” pop into my mind. I don’t think I would mind using
it but I definitely wouldn’t remember anything from it even though it was visual. Something’s
that I do have to be hands-on, especially since I’m a chemistry major.
One thing that bothers me about hands-on labs is the risk of being exposed to hazardous
chemicals. If we were to have virtual labs that risk would be eliminated but think, if we got rid of
all the hazards and the things that could harm us, all we would have left is some sort of a video
game. I may not be a big video game player but wouldn’t a major game player who was told to
do an online lab get bored? Now they might get bored if they were doing a hands-on lab but in
the hands-on lab, they would be moving around and actually doing the experiment.
Looking into the future I could see using a virtual laboratory of some sort to help with
different things in the lab world but right now I don’t think its such a good idea to have a virtual
science class all alone to itself. Dr. Burnett stated in the interview with him that he could see
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“maybe in 20 years or so you can put on some gloves and have some real virtual reality glasses
or goggle’s and then you might get the same experience as a real lab but right now I don’t think
so,” (Burnett Personal Interview).
Dr. Burnett also stated that using an virtual lab is “not a good training process for training
lab technicians, but you could use it as part of a lab techs training but definitely not part of the
actual work,” (Burnett Personal Interview). If you think about it, I wouldn’t want to be the boss
of a lab tech that’s only done online training. They wouldn’t be able do the hands-on things
asked of them because they didn’t have any real life experience. If I had an employee that was
trained by using hands-on experiments and maybe some online things, I would most likely be
able to ask them to do more tasks because of their hands-on experience.
If someone in the future could design a system that could eliminate safety issues and any
other issues that someone might run into in a lab, then you might be able to create a beneficial
virtual class but that would take lots of creativity (Burnett Personal Interview). I think if you
mix all this stuff together, someone could create something that could really help science classes
in the future.
In this day and age, I don’t think there should be virtual science classes that are separate
from normal classes. They should find a way to integrate the two together so students can get a
better understanding of how different reactions work or how lab equipment is operated.
Peer Responder: Corey Harguth