Virtual Science Labs Educating Students In The Classroom And At Home

By Nancy Gardner


Within the computer laboratory classroom, educators have discovered that the computer can be used as an interactive tool for educating students in many study disciplines. For many years, computers have been primarily utilized by schools as a fancy typewriter. However, the use of virtual science labs is changing the very nature of student involvement in their own learning process.

Most any educational curriculum can be taught in this way, although the focus has been placed largely on science courses that many schools do not regard as priority. The computer lab requires the student to participate in their own education in a thought-provoking way that keeps them interested. Many students are lost because the old technique of note-taking and regurgitation of facts does not work for many people.

The variation in learning styles is a true phenomena, and often it is the young boys who fail to do well in the standard model. Note-taking and memorization are skills that girls often have well-honed, and these skills allows them to make good grades. It is being discovered that grades do not necessarily reflect what a student has retained in a class, and many students with low scores actually understand the material but are not able to regurgitate facts as well.

Because young boys are very active, they are most often the students who fall into the active learner category. No one should ignore grades completely, but a more hands-on approach to testing might be a better gauge of what a student has learned. Taking a skill from the textbook to real-world application is something lacking in the standard educational model utilized throughout the country.

Parents who become fed up with a system that seems to desire drugs for their boys over changes in the way material is presented often go to homeschooling. This allows many marginalized students the opportunity to show where their strengths lie. Many poor students are salvaged for the universities simply by being allowed to learn in their own time, and in their own way.

Being able to learn in their own way would make many mediocre students able to excel in the college environment. Unfortunately, with tuition costs astronomically high, unless they get flawless grades throughout high school, many do not get the opportunity. The student either does not wish to go into debt, or they disliked public school so much they cannot fathom pursuing more school after graduation.

Students who really put themselves into this material may even be invited to a college laboratory to explore additional studies on the topics that are most interesting to them, experiencing a true white-coat environment. This is a great opportunity that has always been available to homeschoolers. It really takes the student out of the book learning and into application of what they know.

All the programs which are available to school systems can be made available to parents who homeschool their children. This is important both for those students falling behind, as well as any student who is forced to take time away from school due to illness or injury. These courses help parents have a scholastic outline in some of the most difficult classes to teach from home.




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