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. 2021 Feb 3;11(8):3481-3487.
doi: 10.1002/ece3.7207. eCollection 2021 Apr.

Taking practical learning in STEM education home: Examples from do-it-yourself experiments in plant biology

Ragnhild Gya  1 , Anne Elisabeth Bjune  1
Affiliations

Taking practical learning in STEM education home: Examples from do-it-yourself experiments in plant biology

Ragnhild Gya et al. Ecol Evol. .

Abstract

Practical teaching can give authentic learning experiences and teach valuable skills for undergraduate students in the STEM disciplines. One of the main ways of giving students such experiences, laboratory teaching, is met with many challenges such as budget cuts, increased use of virtual learning, and currently the university lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We highlight how at-home do-it-yourself (DIY) experiments can be a good way to include physical interaction with your study organism, system, or technique to give the students a practical, authentic learning experience. We hope that by outlining the benefits of a practical, at-home, DIY experiment we can inspire more people to design these teaching activities in the current remote teaching situation and beyond. By contributing two examples in the field of plant biology we enrich the database on experiments to draw inspiration from for these teaching methods.

Keywords: at‐home experiment; botany experiment; inquiry‐based learning; remote learning; student active.

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Conflict of interest statement

None declared.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Drying four different species of bryophytes in a regular oven at 40°C for a couple of hours to obtain dry weight. This is step one in a DIY at‐home experiment to find the water holding capacity of different kinds of bryophytes. Photo: Ragnhild Gya
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Three times during a seed germination experiment conducted by students at home during COVID‐19 lock down. This is corn seeds and their germination after 3 days, 5 days, and 11 days. Photo: Ragnhild Gya
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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