Thoughts and Ideas Essay – Anna Davis

I will be honest, I was really nervous about taking a lab course in an online format, but I

was really surprised with how well it went! I really enjoyed this course and found that it really

encouraged a lot of critical thinking on my part, which helped my understanding of the topics

discussed in the lecture portion a great deal. I am very glad that I was able to experience the

lab in an online format and feel that I have learned a lot from the course overall.

I found it really helpful to have the lab videos with the setups already done, where all I

needed to do was observe, write down, and manipulate the data. While I know that this

sounds lazy, hear me out. I found that I was able to learn from this format because it limited

the amount of error that I put into the experiment, and I was able to work with data that was

relatively accurate. This allowed me to understand the concepts significantly more than if I

were to do the full lab on my own. It really took some of the stress out of each experiment for

me, and I was able to focus more on the data rather than worrying if I had the apparatus set up

correctly at all times.

I cannot pick out one lab in particular that I would deem my favorite, however there

were definitely certain aspects of each lab that I really enjoyed. I did really enjoy the

radioactivity lab, because it drew from my prior knowledge from being a biology major and I

found it to be quite interesting. I also found the spear fishing lab to be interesting and fun

because I enjoy fishing myself, so it gave me a lot of food for thought for my next fishing trip. I

feel that this lab course certainly had something that would interest and engage people from all

backgrounds. I appreciated the opportunities to apply what I had learned in the lecture portion

to real-life situations.
 As a new teacher, I am really glad that I got the opportunity to experience an online lab

course, as I feel it will help me to diversify my teaching a lot. I feel that this course not only

equipped me with a good knowledge of the physics material, but also some good options for

delivering lab lessons virtually, which will definitely be helpful in the event that schools are

closed again. Thank you for a wonderful course!