Pre-Labs
Dr Audrey Wilson & Dr Roger Lewis,
Department of Chemistry & Department of Physics,
University of Wollongong
Abstract
Laboratory pre-instruction is essential if students are to make the best use of the apparatus, consumable materials, and intensive academic assistance which are available only for a limited time during the "wet" laboratory class. Various strategies are available to prepare students for the "wet" laboratory, for example, having the students undertake written exercises or tasks. At Wollongong, in addition to this, we use interactive multi-media materials on CD Rom (in chemistry) and videotapes (in physics). This workshop will examine reasons why pre-labs are used; show some examples of materials; consider their impact on students and mention some evaluation results.
Audrey Wilson is a Senior Lecturer and Coordinator of First Year Chemistry at the University of Wollongong. She was a recipient of one of the first round of CAUT grants with which she produced a number of interactive multi-media materials on CD to prepare students for practical work in chemistry.
Roger Lewis is a Senior Lecturer and Coordinator of the First Year Physics Laboratories at the University of Wollongong. With the assistance of a CAUT grant, he has prepared video introductions to the experiments in the First Year Physics laboratory .