Learning in the laboratory: The dilemma of designing labs for first year students

Introductory and Biological Chemistry is a first year course offered at the University of Western Australia (UWA) to students with a limited background in chemistry. The aim of the course is to give them some exposure to and experience with basic chemistry principles. One of the more important aspects of the course is the laboratory component. These compulsory labs are designed to complement the lecture course, and to consolidate the concepts that students are learning.

The design of a lab course raises many questions, including:

• What type of (and how much) information should be given to the students as pre-reading?
• How can we ensure that students do their required pre-work?
• How do we assess students in the lab?

These questions and issues confront most laboratory demonstrators and coordinators.

Another factor that the lecturer and demonstrators in the Introductory and Biological Chemistry course have to consider is that the majority of our students have very little background in chemistry, meaning that the first introductory labs are very important. In 2001, the students were given four lectures before starting their lab classes. In past years, students have started their labs after only one lecture. Through discussion between the lecturer and demonstrators, it was suggested that the students start their lab course in 2002 with a very general 'introduction to the laboratory' type of exercise.

The dilemma: How do we provide students with a general laboratory introduction which is informative, useful and contributes to student learning, without being boring or uninteresting?