Virtual and In-Person Educator and Student Research Programs Promoting Authentic Scientific Experience

Abstract:

As with most educational programs throughout the United States in the spring of 2020, students of the Woodbridge Township School District were required to participate in remote learning from March through June. Though a difficult process for teachers and students of all subjects and grade levels, the facilitation of authentic scientific research at the high school level was particularly challenging and required unique solutions for successful implementation. Because students and teachers were forced to abandon the educational facility, students did not have access to experimental apparatus to complete current research projects or to carry out future research activities. Experimentation at home by students was discouraged for safety concerns and students doing field research were unable to visit field sites as per lockdown protocols mandated by state government. Science fairs and symposia were cancelled, depriving students the opportunity to present the research that had been completed prior to the lockdown. The instructor was permitted to retrieve research instrumentation/educational materials for use in virtual lessons and research experiences. First year research students were then able to design simple original experimental research plans given parameters set forth by their instructor. They were able to direct their instructor at his home to collect the data necessary to support student hypotheses and data was shared with students remotely. Experimentation involved both “laboratory” and “field” research. Students were able to analyze this data, collaborate with peers and obtain instructor feedback through the Google platform and were provided with an authentic research experience in that the outcomes of their proposed experiments were unknown and were determined by experimentation. Second through fourth year research students were able to provide peer mentoring for first year students and were also able to present the findings of their own pre-lockdown research projects in science fairs that offered virtual formats. With planning for a hybrid in-person/virtual format for the 2020-2021 school year it is hoped that that lessons learned from the 2020 spring lockdown can be applied to the hybrid format or a fully remote educational plan should that become necessary.