Effect of Laboratory Protocols on Student Learning

Articles / Papers to Read

Rissing, S. W., & Cogan, J. G. (2009). Can an inquiry approach improve college student learning in a teaching laboratory?. CBE life sciences education, 8(1), 55-61.

This article talks about the use of an inquiry approach in lab protocols and the effect on outcomes in labs. This could be interesting to consider how we could incorporate and inquiry approach, but is also likely a helpful methodological framework.

"We designed a more open-ended, yet still guided, exercise that placed more observational/experimental decisions in the hands of teams of students. We assessed effectiveness of this exercise in improving the performance of students on a series of predetermined content and attitude questions. Results were compared with the performance of similar students on the same sets of questions before and after completing the existing, standard, enzyme laboratory protocol."

https://www.nap.edu/read/10497/chapter/6#76 (TRANSFORMING UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION FOR FUTURE RESEARCH BIOLOGISTS)

Chapter 4: Engaging Students with Interdisciplinary and Project-based Laboratories

This chapter recommends entirely revamping the goal of labs to be project-based, but it also has recommendations for how to make smaller shifts if that is not feasible in your school or at that time. It's also likely worth looking through other chapters in this book, including one on implementation, curriculum, and "Enabling Undergraduates to Experience the Excitement of Biology." The entire text is available online.