{"id":50552,"date":"2020-06-11T16:19:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-11T21:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/?p=50552"},"modified":"2024-11-20T16:21:50","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T21:21:50","slug":"taking-hands-on-learning-online-biology-lab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/2020\/06\/11\/taking-hands-on-learning-online-biology-lab\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking hands-on learning online: Biology lab"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"embed-responsive  embed-responsive-16by9\">\n<div class=\"iframe-container\">\n<div class=\"iframe-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"embed-responsive-item\"   class=\"embed-responsive-item\"   title=\"ACC virtual online lab experience\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8JPgTrh7DWs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic forced Austin Community College (ACC) faculty to adapt their classrooms, labs, and simulations to a virtual environment. We are sharing the innovative ways our faculty are taking hands-on learning online.<\/p>\n<p><strong>In this month&#8217;s FacStaff Digest, we explore how Curtis Eckerman, ACC Biotechnology department chair and Biology professor, recreated the biology lab online.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Normally what we would do in a lab is have the materials set out on benches and have the students work together on a worksheet or lab report,&#8221; says Biology Professor Curtis Eckerman. &#8220;Not only did we lose the group aspect, but we also lost the hands-on aspect of the lab.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Eckerman tried to replicate the classroom experience online by setting up his virtual biology labs as stations. He used a combination of videos, images, explanations, and worksheets.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This creates a work-at-your-own-pace feel, but their worksheets are always due at the end of the week so that they can start on the next set of labs the following week. I also make myself available in Collaborate during the normal class times to help answer any questions or work with a student who might be having problems with the lab or figuring something out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Eckerman also provided students outside resources to help them engage with the material more than reading their lab manual and looking at a few images.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I will be using the materials I created in the future because I decided to recreate the entire lab experience so that it was a better guide for the material,&#8221; says Eckerman. &#8220;I will be using this same guide when we have face-to-face classes again, and I believe the students will feel better prepared and have a better idea of what is expected of them in the lab going forward.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Most courses will remain online through the summer semester. A small selection of courses that require a significant hands-on component that cannot be converted to online will begin July 6. For more information about the college&#8217;s response to COVID-19, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.austincc.edu\/coronavirus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">austincc.edu\/coronavirus<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic forced Austin Community College (ACC) faculty to adapt their classrooms, labs, and simulations to a virtual environment. We are sharing the innovative ways our faculty are taking hands-on learning online. In &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/2020\/06\/11\/taking-hands-on-learning-online-biology-lab\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3930,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,15,17],"tags":[1796,3902,2037,938,1843],"class_list":["post-50552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-students","category-facstaff-news","category-news-and-announcements","tag-biology","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-hands-on","tag-online-learning"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3930"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50552\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}