Chemistry faculty use GoPro to stream lab classes to remote learners
Faculty members in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry are innovative teacher scholars who value hands-on training in the laboratory. So, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, there was a quick scramble to move all laboratories to remote instruction. This was no small feat considering that chemistry is a core experimental science that requires many hours of training to achieve mastery. Through the ingenuity of a few faculty members, however, now all students who must take their classes remotely can still participate in laboratory through the use of GoPro cameras.
In the summer of 2020, the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry bought several GoPro cameras for streaming and recording video of laboratory experiments, says Dr. Kenneth Overly, Chair of the Department. “The goal was to find a way for remote students to participate in lab in real time so that they know how to perform chemical manipulations when they get back into the lab in-person. With GoPro cameras we can stream live, high-definition video to those students as they follow the work of a partner in the lab. At the same time, the video can be recorded for those students who are not able to participate synchronously.” As an added benefit, the recordings can be uploaded to the course management software for all the students to review and learn.
This approach was taken by Dr. Tyler Stack and Dr. Kathleen Cornely in an Introductory Chemistry Laboratory course in Fall 2020. Each remote student was paired with an in-person student who was conducting the experiment, and they worked together to obtain the required data. Biochemistry major Anna Fakhri ’24 was an in-person student in Dr. Stack’s course who enjoyed using the GoPro. She says, “I think for me it was fun because it wasn’t just [the] lab work that I was doing affect[ing] me. It kinda made me work harder and make sure I was going slow and really reading directions because what I was doing was affected other people.” On the flip side, chemistry -secondary education major and remote learner Jeanna Bateman ’24 really enjoyed watching her classmates run the experiments and likened it to video blogs. “Sometimes it was really entertaining,” she says, recalling a particular example of someone showing her a gorgeous sunset west of campus. “Lab is my favorite thing so I was definitely missing it. I have friends that are remote at other colleges and they have simulations [to do, and] they were very jealous that I got to have lab.”
While students and faculty alike are all yearning for the return to all in-person instruction, it is clear that creative ideas are necessary during the pandemic to ensure that students progress through the major. Be sure to check out Dr. Stack’s video about the GoPro laboratory experience, linked here and in the picture caption above.
