Adventures in MET Land

Look into any classroom, anywhere in the world, and you will see students who have different learning styles. There are auditory, tactile, and especially visual learners. The goal of ETEC’s 533 module B’s lesson 1 was to look at, examine, a resource that used visualization technologies to represent science or math concepts. To satisfy this goal I looked at the website of www.chemcollective.com.

The website provides learners with authentic representation of chemistry problems via active participation within virtual labs. Yaron et al (2010) noted that virtual labs can engage students in active authentic learning of chemistry concepts. Students can do the labs quicker than actual labs, see immediate feedback, and the virtual lab can be made easier to reduce student cognitive load. Students are engaged in explanation, analysis, and synthesis of the problem being illustrated within the virtual environment. One drawback of the virtual lab, illustrated by Yaron et al (2010), was that virtual labs do not give students hands on experience with chemistry. However, repetitive visual representation of concepts (if more than one virtual lab is performed per unit) is beneficial to student learning as they can visually reinforce learnt concepts, followed or preceded by a hands on lab. Visual representation is important in learning chemistry concepts. Mathematical based chemistry problems become real when they can see what their calculations represent. The concept of visually seeing what is/has occurred to support student learning was evident within fellow ETEC 533 student’s discussion posts.

Within the ETEC 533 module B’ lesson one discussion post other MET students made it evident that visual representation of concepts help students obtain a deeper understanding. One of the MET students commented that Science Worlds time lapse images of Vancouver would help his Albertan students understand the concept of tides as many of the students have never seen an ocean.  GeoGebra software was discussed by another METTER and it allows for the construction of lines, points, and other geometric shapes. The MET student indicated that visual aids, such as GeoGebra, help students become engaged and motivated with the learning. I agree with the comments these students made about the resources they were discussing. Both of the resources they commented on provide students with situations that will deepen their understanding of the concepts being introduced to them. The science world resource allows students to see real world situations that would otherwise be impossible for them to see due to geographical distances. GeoGebra allow teachers or the students to manipulate geometric objects.

The virtual labs represented within the chemcollective website afford students with the same visual opportunities as the Science World and GeoGebra resources. They allow students to visually see what their performed calculations actually represent. Abstract concepts and calculations are authenticated through visualization. These virtual environments further reinforce course concepts by engaging them in problems. Motivations to perform problems increase as students know they will obtain immediate feedback.

From the module B’s lesson one activity I have learnt that virtual labs, in conjunction with hands on labs, can afford students with increased visual opportunities to learn course concepts.

Cheers,

D

References:

Yaron, D., Karabinos, M., Evans, K., Davenport, J., Cuardros, J., & Greeno, J. (2010). Learning chemistry: what, when, and how? In Instructional Explanationsin the disciplines (pp. 41-50). Springer US.