The science laboratory plays a critical role in undergraduate education because it allows a student to experience the concepts taught during the lecture. Generally most science laboratory courses utilize traditional, also known as expository or cookbook, laboratory exercises, that follow a specific set of directions. However, students tend to be much less engaged in the laboratory exercise because the results from these experiments are typically known before the completion of the exercises. Open-inquiry laboratory experiments have been utilized by some educators to help the students become more active and engaged in their learning because it requires a higher level of critical thinking from the students. The presentation will discuss an open-inquiry experiment involving the purification of river water. The presentation will also discuss the gains in knowledge that were assessed through pre- and post-experiment quizzes as well as the students’ experiences that were analyzed utilizing a 6-point Likert experience survey.<br/><br/>

Purification of river water: An open-inquiry experiment for the undergraduate teaching laboratory

251st National Meeting (2016)

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