Virtual lab experiment offers biology students opportunity of a lifetime
Virtual lab experiment offers biology students opportunity of a lifetime
September 29, 2020
Controlling a multi-million-dollar microscope from their living rooms, the students
in Heather Townsend’s Introductory Microbiology course experienced the opportunity
of a lifetime thanks to a unique connection between two schools more than 700 miles
apart.
As a biology instructor, Townsend relies on a lot of hands-on teaching, lab experiments
and face-to-face interactions to put her students in the best position to succeed
in the classroom.
With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing college professors nationwide to adapt to remote
teaching, the Community College of Rhode Island Associate Professor utilized social
media to build new connections and deliver opportunities to her students that most
likely would not have been available otherwise.
As part of the Fall 2020 curriculum for her Introductory Microbiology course, Townsend
arranged a virtual lab experiment with the University of Toledo’s Scientists Changing
Our Pre-college Education (SCOPE) program, which allowed her students to test out
the benefits of a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), a multi-million-dollar piece
of equipment that offers more than 15 times the magnifying power of telescopes found
at most colleges and universities.
Through the use of a special application, Townsend’s students could actually control
the SEM from their own laptops or computers, using it to zoom in and analyze samples
such as blood cells, diatoms, and E. Coli. The SEM is so powerful, Townsend said,
it has been used in various studies to diagnose sickle cell anemia and other blood
diseases.
“This was an opportunity we wouldn’t have had it not be for teaching and learning
remotely,” she said. “The students loved it. Where else could you operate a million-dollar
microscope from the comfort of your home?”
Toledo launched the SCOPE program 10 years ago as a way to bring sophisticated scientific
instrumentation into area classrooms. Like other programs of its kind, COVID-19 guidelines
forced SCOPE to develop more remote offerings, which, in turn, opened the door for
colleges and universities such as CCRI to take advantage of this unique learning experience.
This cohort is just one of many ways Townsend has adapted her curriculum – and her
philosophy on online learning – during the height of the pandemic. She had never taught
an online course before COVID-19, so when the entire college transitioned to a remote
platform, she took to social media to find new, interesting ways to keep her students
engaged, and began attending multiple weekly webinars with other teachers to network
and share ideas.
“I really wanted something interactive – something where they could go beyond watching
videos or just looking at pictures,” Townsend said.
After joining a private Facebook group for biology professors, Townsend caught wind
of the SCOPE program and immediately reached out to Toledo to get CCRI involved. The
use of the SEM allowed her students to examine specimens closer than they’re accustomed
to; for example, Townsend said, the virtual lab helped explain the differences in
how pollen affects human allergies based on its unique surface features, which can
only be viewed using the SEM. She has already scheduled a second SCOPE cohort for
October for when her Organismal Biology class participates in a specified pollen lab.
“This new learning environment has opened the door to so many resources I never knew
were available,” Townsend said.
Enamored with wide array of learning possibilities through social networking, Townsend
included similar interactive sessions in her summer Organismal Biology course as well,
including a live Zoom webinar in June with best-selling author and world-renowned
paleontologist Neil Shubin, who is credited with the discovery of the 21st century Tiktaalik, a transitional species between fish and four-legged animals –
or tetrapods – ultimately dubbed a “fishapod” by Shubin.
“This was truly the highlight of my career,” she said.
Townsend not only redesigned her course to highlight Shubin’s work, she also added
several similar interactive remote learning webinars to her fall curriculum and plans
to continue implementing them to various courses when CCRI returns to a full, in-person
learning platform. Among the scheduled guests speaking to CCRI students this fall
are Dr. Forrest Townsend, veterinary surgeon at the Bayside Hospital for Animals in
Florida; Lonnie McCaskill, the head zookeeper at New York’s Prospect Park Zoo and
the lead biologist working to save Siamese crocodiles; and Tonya Clauss, the head
veterinarian at the Georgia Aquarium.
Townsend looks forward to the day she and her students can reunite in the classroom,
but the she lessons learned teaching remotely, in addition to the connections to new
people and places, have forever changed her approach for the better – a “silver lining,”
as she puts it, amidst these unique times.
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September 29, 2020
