Math and other?STEM courses?pose unique challenges, especially online, including the level of difficulty of these courses for some students and the resulting anxiety, complex notation, and the need to re-imagine lab activities for a new teaching and learning environment.?
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STEM Courses?
Options for teaching math and other STEM courses:?
- If you plan to teach?a STEM class using?Zoom, introduce concepts and terms by using?Canvas (myCourses)?pages before the virtual meeting so students can be better prepared.?
- Use?short, focused?videos to demonstrate how to solve problems.?Zoom provides a?whiteboard?which you can use to draw and write.??
- Take advantage of these?STEM Resources?developed by the Center for Academic Resources (CFAR).?These resources have been carefully selected and/or created to complement the most commonly enrolled UNH STEM courses. Videos are intended to supplement the information presented in class. Strategies are provided?for helping students to structure their study plans for these courses.?
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Online Labs??
Lab courses can be difficult to replicate in an online environment.?Your original learning objectives were designed and developed based on the hands-on lab activities.?When redesigning your lab course,?consider the following:?
- Will students have access to the resources at home and be able to?safely?complete the labs??
- Can online videos or simulations?substitute for?the hands-on?experience? For example, if your students were asked to use a?microscope?to identify cells,?can they use a video or simulation?to?replicate?this process and discuss their observations, or even identify?process errors?in the simulation???
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Consider what?students?can?learn without accessing the lab material or equipment:?
- Develop hypotheses?
- Design experiments to test the hypotheses??
- Visualize?and?interpret?data??
- Draw conclusions?based?on?data??
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An online lab course can be more focused on?analysis and conclusions – and application of theory--?instead of hands-on experiences.?While students cannot work in the lab, instructors may be able?to?photograph or produce videos of important components of the lab?in order?to?provide?students?with the opportunity to make the observations?and?“collect” data necessary for conducting the appropriate analyses and reaching conclusions.??
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Make sure your students have access to a computer/tablet and internet so they can utilize all the resources to do virtual lab work. Academic Technology has a limited number of laptops?available?for loan.?
The Resource?collection contains a sampling of?online resources which can be useful in?designing?remote labs. We encourage you to search your professional networks, or connect with a librarian, to find appropriate resources for your lab.?
