Florida International University (FIU) is a Hispanic Serving Institution with a large number of commuter and non-traditional students. Designing labs for this population of students poses some interesting challenges, particularly when it comes to courses for non-science majors. Striking the balance between convenience for students, the demands on laboratory classroom space, and increasing the interest and awareness in science is key. Further, we want our students to walk away from the course with knowledge of how science is done (i.e. the Scientific and Engineering Practices). A selection of research articles have presented a method of incorporating Scientific Practices into the laboratory curriculum through the use of project-based lab activities. The knowledge gained from cCWCS workshops in food chemistry and inquiry-based labs, was used in creating an activity about natural indicators. We will showcase how to design the same project-based lab for two different modalities – hybrid (half online, half face-to-face) and fully online. The online students complete all parts online whereas in the hybrid model, students complete the initial portion on campus and the rest at home. In this presentation, we will discuss the development of the lab, student responses to lab prompts and how we mitigated some of the challenges of getting project-based labs to work in online and hybrid environments. We will also discuss various combinations of on- and off-campus activities and our insights on the benefits and drawbacks of adapting the same lab to two different modalities.<br/>

Incorporation of a project-based lab curriculum into hybrid and online chemistry labs for non-science majors

2019 Spring National Meeting

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