Stirring Up Science: Hands-On and Virtual Labs for High School Science

Are you struggling to make high school science labs both engaging and educational? Hi, I'm Doc, and I've got the solution for you. Join me as I share my tips and tricks for making lab sessions exciting, whether your students are conducting experiments at home or exploring simulations online. By the end of our chat, you'll have all the strategies you need to create lab experiences that are not only fun but also deeply enriching for every learner in biology, chemistry, environmental science, forensic science, and physics.

This is the third of three episodes in the Science Labs at Home series, where I’m breaking down all you need to know about hands-on and virtual labs, the pros and cons, the strategies used to make sense of both, and actual labs to use in various class subjects. 

Join me as I guide you through a tangible at-home lab, offering a practical and enjoyable experiment that aligns with high school biology, chemistry, environmental science, forensic science, or physics curricula. We'll provide step-by-step instructions and discuss the educational significance of the hands-on experience.

We’ll also explore a virtual lab for each discipline, showcasing the power of technology in enhancing the learning process. Discover how these virtual experiences can captivate high school students, providing a unique and informative exploration of concepts in biology, chemistry, environmental science, forensic science, and physics.

Whether you're a homeschooling veteran or just getting started, Episode 4 is your go-to resource for bringing the excitement of science labs into your home. Tune in for practical insights, engaging experiments, and a well-rounded approach to high school science education that combines the best of both at-home and virtual labs.

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Let's continue the conversation and explore the wonders of science together!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to another episode of Teaching High School Science, and this is our third episode of three for my virtual and at home lab series. We talked about the pros and cons, while incorporating both of them into your high school curriculum is a great idea, and then we discussed those common strategies that you should incorporate or use across both types of labs. Now, today, I am going to provide actual examples, actual labs that you can use for both at home and virtual labs in biology, chemistry, physics, environmental science and forensic science. So let's get started. Welcome to Teaching High School Science. I'm your host, doc, a former biochemist turned high school science teacher and private tutor. Whether you're homeschooling your team through high school science or teaching online, join me as I share tips and strategies I've learned over the years for at home and online labs and activities, breaking down complex concepts and structuring learning in a way that makes sense. Now let's dive into today's topics. Let's talk about some actual at home and virtual labs. I'm going to share one of each one virtual lab, one at home lab and I'm going to start with biology, then environmental science, forensic science, chemistry and then end with physics. Now just a disclaimer there are so many other science subjects that you may want to introduce your high school er to, and there are so many activities that you can do. I'm just doing a sample to get us started and to give an idea of the different things that you can do teaching online or at home. So first let's talk about biology. Now a great at home lab I like to do and I did this even with my students when I was in the classroom, but definitely with my private homeschool students is the DNA extraction lab. So you can easily extract DNA from common household items like strawberries. Using dish soap, salt and rubbing alcohol it's a hands on experience. That brings the microscopic world of DNA and genetics right up for students to actually experience. They hear about DNA, they know about DNA, but they are really blown away when they're able to extract their own DNA or DNA from strawberries. Some of them don't even realize that strawberries, even though we talk about it in class, they may not even realize or make the connection that strawberries have DNA.

Speaker 1: 2:37

Another type of at home lab I like to do with biology students is what I call the pond water exploration. Now, for my homeschooling students, I always tell them get a microscope. Microscopes are great additions to your homeschool equipment because they can see so much. They get surprised at what they can see. Just magnifying a grain of sand, it is like a work of art. So, just taking a drop of pond water and magnifying it, they actually see that, yes, there are living organisms in pond water. They see them moving. They are fascinated and spend hours just looking at pond water through a microscope and I have them draw. Anytime we're using microscopes I have them draw what they see, and that is an important thing to do and we'll get more into these techniques in a later episode. But that's important to do because it teaches them diagramming and observations.

Speaker 1: 3:37

Now, those are two. I know I said I would share one, but I get excited about this, so I may be sharing more than one, but those are two at home biology labs that are great for high school, and the beauty of these labs is that, even if you use them at a younger age, science builds upon itself, so we're looking at the same concepts at a deeper level, based on their developmental levels. So even if my students told me, well, we did this in middle school or we did this in elementary school, I would say, well, we're going to look at it from a different point of view, we're going to have different questions and you're going to tie it to what we're learning in class today and, trust me, each and every time, based on how I present it, how they're questioned, what they're asked to do with that information, they are still blown away. Now, virtual labs and biology. Enzyme Catalyst is one of those topics that is very abstract for students and can be difficult for them to visualize. So I always like to use some type of virtual platform where they can actually see the lock and key. Then we diagram it and go through a kinesthetic activity where they actually have to put the puzzle pieces together. But the simulations help them to see how different factors affect how that puzzle fits together, whether it even fits together at all, or the ones that demonstrate adaptation. Have them understand that evolution is the change of an organism over time based on factors in this environment. For instance, having mice of different fur in an environment, which ones may get preyed upon more than others. Why and how does that affect later populations? Is that something that happens right away? Does that take time? How does that work? Okay, enough about biology, I can stay there for a minute.

Speaker 1: 5:26

Let's move on to environmental science. Now one at-home lab for environmental is assessing soil quality. You can use household products to actually assess the factors that influence the soil in your environment, and students are surprised when they find out the different factors that can be in their soil. Another thing is just taking surveys, doing a backyard survey of biodiversity, having them understand what biodiversity is, how you record it, how you observe it, and then having them make those connections with the local ecosystem and understand the importance of biodiversity. Now an online component can be simulations that allow them to manipulate various factors of the carbon cycle. They get to see how energy and matter interact with the environment and how changing these factors impact the environment. They can then make that connection to how our activities impact the carbon cycle and impact our environment.

Speaker 1: 6:29

While my background is biochemistry and I am absolutely in love with chemistry, I also love forensic science. If your homeschooler is interested in forensic science, added to their curriculum because it involves chemistry, physics, biology, it covers a lot of the sciences. Now, two at-home labs that come to mind right away with forensic science is the fingerprinting kit lab, which I usually do in conjunction with DNA, because we're solving a crime where they use items and materials to extract fingerprints. And then the second one is an entomology lab. They study the activity of insects on a carcass. Now the carcass is usually some type of food, but it is a very unique way to understand the role of insects in forensic investigations. So let's move over to the virtual side. You have virtual labs that offer interactive experiences where students can interact with and interpret blood spatter patterns. Now they do this in a controlled online environment and some of these can have them go as deep as calculating the physics behind it, which is a great segue for them to understand that, while we may study the sciences separate, like biology, chemistry and physics, they are all interconnected.

Speaker 1: 7:46

Now let's move on to my first love, which is chemistry. I mentioned early about the pH indicator using red cabbage, as well as a titration. You can do with acids and bases, using baking soda and vinegar to show a neutralization process. Another one is just by mixing different chemicals together household chemicals like lemon juice and baking soda to see the type of chemical changes that occur. Is there a color change or precipitate, meaning a solid that comes when you mix two liquids together? Does that come out? And students get to see that sometimes there's a chemical reaction, sometimes they're not. How do you know that a chemical reaction occurred?

Speaker 1: 8:24

On the virtual side, there are so many concepts that it's difficult to provide in hands on experience for, for instance, really understanding all of the gas laws and how they interact together. PhET has a great simulation where they can be introduced to gas laws. They can manipulate various factors like volume, pressure, temperature to see how it affects other variables, and it also goes through the ideal gas laws. I like to do this one in conjunction with the hands-on version, because the PhET lab actually provides them a better explanation of why that is happening. Because they're able to see the gas particles in the simulation, where they cannot see them in real life, and there are multiple platforms, including PhET, where students get to explore the atomic structure. They get to see how change in protons, neutrons and electrons affect the atom. Does it affect the identity, does it affect the mass or does it affect the charge? Now, because we cannot see atoms, students have a difficult time visualizing or grasping those concepts. So using the online simulation is a great way, a crucial way, to help them understand and really see and connect those ideas to what they're doing in their coursework.

Speaker 1: 9:41

Last, but absolutely not least, is physics, and I have to give a plug here because physics you may have heard this is the backbone of all sciences. One of my favorite at-home labs is the electromagnet. Having them create a simple electromagnet using wire, battery and our nails is a great way to just explore electricity and magnetism. You can change the type of nail, you can change the number of cores and the wire, you can change the number of batteries. But it helps them to understand that relationship between electricity and magnetism which is one of the fundamental concepts in physics. Another lab I love is the pendulum lab. They can use string weights and they can change these various factors and it helps them to explore the period frequency and just really get a good grasp on simple harmonic motion.

Speaker 1: 10:40

Now let's move into some of the virtual labs. One is with mirror and mirror reflection, going back to PhET I got to go back to PhET. They have a simulation where students can explore reflection and refraction using lenses. And another great resource for physics is the physics classroom. They have a lot of different simulations, tutorials. They even break down the math problems with step-by-step processes to help your student understand how to do it as well as you. If you just need a brush up, that is a great website to go to.

Speaker 1: 11:15

CK-12. org is another great site. They have textbooks and they have simulations for physics and chemistry, but their physics simulation is pretty good. I would say definitely go there. Look at some of the things they have. One on projectile motion and trajectory using archery is really interesting and students get a kick out of it. Let me know if you have any questions, ideas or other experiences that you'd like to share. Head on over to my podcast page, which you can access by visiting my website at thesciencementorcom. Then select Podcast from the menu and subscribe now to the Teaching High School Science podcast for your regular dose of motivation and just-in-time science ideas, and together let's make high school science a journey of exploration and achievement. Until next time, remember, curiosity leads to endless possibilities.