Students studying the natural sciences or those fulfilling their pre-health requirements often enroll in a five-course sequence (two general chemistry, two organic chemistry, and one biochemistry course). The courses in this popular sequence rely heavily on skills ranging from the content-based skills (such as kinetics, acid-base, nucleophilic reactions, etc.) to the non-content transferable skills that a student in the sciences needs (communication, safety, lab skills, ethics, etc.). These transferable skills are the necessary pre-requisite lab techniques that will form the basis for student success as they progress in their coursework.<br/>The traditional method for teaching students to use new lab techniques is to have students watch an instructor demonstrating the use of the tool or instrument to the entire class (either in person or a video). Recently, approaches for teaching these skills have been developed that allow for more individualized instruction: students recording videos and the use of digital badges. In all of these cases, however, the instruction begins with some combination of students reading about the skill, watching videos, and observing expert demonstrations from teaching assistants. Unfortunately, watching an expert perform a skill can still lead to ineffective and incorrect techniques. Though these deficiencies are discovered in the grading of the videos, the students nonetheless spend time honing the non-expert practice. This is not ideal.<br/>This project assesses a new approach to teaching foundation laboratory and safety skills and techniques, which will help students become successful in future laboratory courses. Instead of starting the instruction with large demonstrations or videos, our novel approach begins with one-on-one mentoring of skills during the experimental “down-time” during the week prior to the experiment. While performing the experiment of the week, teaching assistants work one-on-one with students to develop familiarity with the new tool during. Students are given the opportunity to explore the tool, ask questions, and demonstrate that they understand the appropriate use of the technique. Then, during the following week, students apply their knowledge to the following experiment. Paired with students authoring videos on the technique, and digital badges, this approach effectively allows for individual students to receive personal, one-on-one, mentoring even in large service courses.

One-on-one technique instruction of laboratory skills in large service courses

2019 Spring National Meeting

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