SARS-CoV-2 or coronavirus, has been the biggest pandemic in the last 100 years. This has caused great changes in the daily life of people, generating new barriers in the educational field.
The change in conditions caused by the pandemic has generated the need to stay connected to carry out day-to-day activities. Although this situation is complex, we believe that it is time to consider the impact of science education in these times.
In Lab4U, we are concerned about the access to quality science education for all, supporting teachers and professors who teach science classes to generate meaningful reflection and learning during this contingency.
In this effort, we have implemented Lab4U’s offline mode. This will allow teachers and students to have a pocket lab anywhere and experiment even without an internet connection. These experiments can be downloaded when you have connectivity, being able to access them and use our tools without restrictions, thus providing greater learning opportunities. Try it anytime, anywhere.
If you are a science teacher and you are preparing material to work with your students remotely or improve your methodologies to go back to class. Let us know how we can help you. Our email is [email protected]
Learning science by experimenting from home is becoming more accessible! Don’t let the this pandemic be an obstacle for the next Einstein or Marie Curie.
In the previous episode we talked about how we must reset the way we teach science, which is vital for our entire future and especially considering the current context we are living in.
For Lab4U it is of utmost importance to foster conversations about how to improve science education and what tools will we leverage to train students interested in science to ask questions and acquire better skills from science to solving the problems of the coming decades.
In this fourth episode, Komal talks with James Caras, a leader in STEM education, a mentor and advisor at Lab4U, a serial ed-tech entrepreneur and a brilliant scientist and educator, who is also CEO/Co-Founder of Catalyst Education, where here they are helping hundreds of science educators and faculty members with their solutions that allows educators and instructors inspire students to become the next generation of scientists and problem solvers.
In addition, he founded Sapling Learning, which was later acquired by Macmillan and continues to impact millions of science educators worldwide.
Don’t miss out on an important conversation about how, through the right methodologies and tools in STEM education, students in schools and universities, currently supporting the formation and training of the new generation of scientists.
Episode outline:
00:00: Presentations
04:00: Teaching students the love of science
11:00: How has this experience been lived in education in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic?
13:30: Why is this not just virtual labs or a virtual experience? What’s the difference between real experimentation and virtual labs?
15:30: The development of virtual laboratories as a learning platform
21:00: What has happened in STEM education considering COVID-19?
25:00: Conclusions and learnings
This opens different perspectives for the students, who, in James’ words, are tired, overwhelmed and afraid to feel that many times it is a waste of time to explore and learn the use of new technology that allows the development of virtual classrooms, virtual labs and virtual conversations that are far from the environment that the schools lived before the crisis of COVID-19.
Involving students in science
The COVID-19 pandemic has allowed experimentation with science education, so that today’s students can learn to use software that allows them to acquire knowledge in science and get involved, along with the entire school community, in forming a much more empowered perspective, regarding issues related to the use of digital technologies and distance learning.
In Lab4U we know how important and crucial it is to prepare students, teachers and members of the academic bodies of universities, especially those that teach science to students, to build platforms that allow the development of an education in the service of science.
James Caras, in his conversation with Komal, explained that being persistent in learning this topic with students, considering how difficult this situation is for many people, has allowed us to know the concerns and challenges that universities and science departments have in experimenting with scientific learning from different platforms.
Leading the challenge of teaching science
Some of the main topics discussed in this episode were:
Skill development for students and instructors in science education
Student experiences in learning with virtual laboratories versus real experiments and real data
Challenges of science in education for future generations.
About how students are experiencing the challenge of teachers and academics to teach them the use of new skills and tools, this was commented by James Caras, as part of a search for different topics, especially in the development of chemistry or technology courses.
The development of this technology is linked to the way in which students arrive at the learned contents, being this a challenging task for the teachers. In many occasions, these topics linked to science can remain incomplete if there is not a feedback, being transcendental the search of results, hypothesis raising and visibility of the experiments.
An experience that becomes a legacy
From James Caras’ experience, it can be understood that strengthening science education requires several challenges to make the student experience as enriching as it would be in the absence of a pandemic.
Nevertheless, with or without COVID-19, science in education has allowed, with the virtual and remote modality as the way to practice education during the last months, the development of the spaces to learn science such as virtual laboratories.
This has been a coordinated work between instructors and students, regarding the assimilation and understanding of the software’s management, through the correct instructions, content and specific material. In this way, the learning has allowed to deliver the skills that are needed more efficiently and quickly in the teaching of these topics.
Thus, the virtual experience when entering a laboratory is key in the development of the learning process and in facing challenges regarding the answering to problems, formulating hypotheses and acquiring theories that are also at the service of scientific knowledge, as has been the work of James Caras during his implementation of this technology.
The value of this knowledge and learning is paramount in the way we deal with the acquisition of science for ourselves and our future. As the education currently being delivered, the role of science has not yet been projected with the acuity that one would expect, and therefore Lab4U makes available this and other topics to be in tune with today’s need to rethink science education.
What can we continue to learn from this technology in education?
According to James Caras, it is crucial that learning to train future science professionals is accompanied by a good experience in the online setting, because students are currently tired and the current context has overwhelmed both them and teachers.
That is why it is so important that there is a concern to strengthen skills that scientists need to develop in order to solve problems, keeping in mind what is necessary for the future of the workforce One of the opportunities that the handling of this technology has had is the construction of a structural design of the content that is being delivered by the instructors, being key the formation in the virtual classroom and the vision that in the future these generations can develop to the challenges of putting education as a link for a science that is closer and adaptable to the advancing times.
Experiencing science in virtual mode is what allows us to continue learning with enough tools for students, teachers and educational communities to consider factors such as the use of new technologies and virtuality to bring much closer the vision they may have about science to the debate, which, despite the distance, must exist as a part of the educational process.
In this challenge of transformation that students and teachers have experienced in recent times, some skills must be more stimulated, since the management and performance of these platforms are the engine of a reality that we can not fail to consider in strengthening scientific activities in the classroom.
Therefore, in Lab4U we want students to feel that they are progressing and not wasting their time with this virtual modality, and thus continue to empower and deliver skills to professionals, teachers and members of the schools so that this process is one of understanding, learning and living science.
Valuing scientific knowledge, the delivery of support material and the management of a team of professionals who teach future generations is crucial and a priority for Lab4U in generating a change in the necessary direction to deliver knowledge in a time as complex as this.
An unforgettable year in many ways, these unprecedented times have united us as never before, science education has never been more important and our impact is changing paradigms.
Despite having faced a strange and difficult year, we are proud to share with our community all the good things that have happened at Lab4U.
These are the most outstanding events that we can highlight of 2020:
Lab4U’s Impact: A year in review
We are very happy and satisfied with what has been accomplished this year, and we want to share some milestones that have given us conviction to continue working for science education with teachers and students.
We have impacted 13K new students and 4K new teachers during this year, taking science education to places where not much is known about it and empowering teachers and students to enhance their knowledge, tools and skills.
Our community has initiated more than 70,000 new experiments throughout 2020, demonstrating that it is increasingly possible to bring the joy of experimentation and discovery while learning science during a pandemic in a remote environment.
70K NEW EXPERIMENTS INITIATED DURING 2020
We are proud to share that we have had more than 20 webinars with 1600 educators: that’s more than 30 hours of sharing! Thanks for the NPs 94, we continue to work to improve our content and experiences. Thank you for that love and for listening to us as part of your routines in this difficult moment in history. We want to bring science education closer to you!
We have brought you 10 new episodes of Lab4U Talks, generating important conversations about how to face science education in the present moment. Our episodes of Lab4U Talks have been played a total of 1011 times between the English and Spanish podcasts during the year. Relive our best conversations at https://lab4u.co/en/blog/.
We are grateful to our CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) partners such as CEMEX and the US Embassy in Mexico for sponsoring a project to impact the future of the workforce in STEM education in Mexico. That means having 40 teachers and 5K students in 5 states of that country. We are very grateful to our partners for empowering the next generation of STEM professionals, because we know that empowering this type of education is the only tool to change the way science is taught around the world.
Never stopped growing our product
Growing up in times of crisis, that’s what this summary should be called. Someday, we had to experience that at Lab4U. We grew in content, product, we expanded our audience and we are happy to share with you some of the new experimental tools and new products launched and to be launched…
This year we have developed more than 25 new experiments between Lab4Physics, Lab4Chemistry, Lab4Brains and Lab4Biology, being the most visited experiments of the year: Moonwalk, Accelerated Learning with Newton and Pirate Ship!
Our good old friend Lab4Physics grew in audience and experiments. Plus we could add a new category of experiment! This year allowed us to continue exploring new tools and possibilities to show students science. Among those tools we have today Lab4Brains, a new collaborative project between Braintoys and Lab4U that becomes the tangible demonstration of the importance of developing skills in these times.
* Only available in Chile (Mexico and US coming soon)
Lab4Chemistry has new experiments and Marie Curie is happy!
With our patented technology, students can discover colorimetry in exciting new ways using their own mobile devices. Lab4Chemistry uses the power of a smartphone or tablet’s camera to determine color and concentration of chemical solutions.
Only in Chemistry we have introduced 11 new experiments in 3 categories: Chemical reactions, acid-base and chemical kinetics, besides presenting a new tool: Color Inspector. Thank you CORFO for being a step towards our growth. In 2019 we had 8 experiments and 2 categories. This year we have more than 20 experiments in 5 categories! Marie Curie is happy!
Because we want teachers to continue learning and developing skills to bring inquiry science education knowledge to thousands more students during 2021, we invite you to review our newly designed Teacher’s Portal with more content and tools.
And last but not the least … Drumrolls …
By march 2021, Lab4Biology will allow students to explore microscopy using only their smartphone camera with our new tool: Analyscope.
Recognitions & Lab4U in the media
HundrED to ED Tech Solutions 2020-2021
This year we feel honored to have been awarded with the recognition HundrED to ED Tech Solutions, an award (2020-2021) that congratulated Lab4U because it turns smartphones into pocket labs and empowers educators to teach inspiring science classes based on inquiry and exploration.
MIT Solve TPrize With great recognition we also took the MIT Solve Tprize, who noted that: “Lab4U is democratizing access to a quality science education in Latin America. By leveraging smartphone technology that millions of students around the world have in their pocket, Lab4U is giving millions of students around the world access to a hands-on science education. Lab4U supports science educators with tools and methodologies to put their students at the center of the learning process”. Thanks!!
LATAM EdTech 100 HolonIQ’s
We also want to share our joy for being considered as part of LATAM EdTech 100 HolonIQ’s annual list of the most innovative EdTech startups across Latin America.
World Economic Forum
Our CEO and Co-founder was invited to write an article for the World Economic Forum, as a part of the Young Global Leaders Annual Summit, where she pointed out that science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) are crucial to our future.
Our Community and its impact
ScienceTHON
A big milestone that brings us closer to working with school communities, was that for the first time, students and teachers from all over Latin America gathered in a virtual science hackathon with Lab4U and Colegio Altamira to solve the world’s biggest challenges through science and
technology using an SDG framework. Without a doubt, a great advance in the democratization of science!
World Education Week
Last November, our CEO and co-founder, Komal Dadlani, participated in the completion of the Science and Technology Week of Alberto Blest Gana School, where she shared with teachers and students, supporting this initiative that is a joint work of this educational institution with instance that help them to promote their technological area, which welcomes students in search of their tools and skills in this area.
Lab4U 2020 Award
We at Lab4U would like to congratulate Ms. Martha Styer for her exemplary work this year with her students and for her impact on physical education at Cristo Rey High School in Sacramento, California.
At Lab4U we work with science teachers and educators from across the country and around the world who inspire us as they provide their students tools to love science and practice it interactively, thus improving learning outcomes. Ms. Styer has gone above and beyond with her and her goals!
At Lab4U we are extremely grateful to our community of educators, clients, advisors, investors and partners for making the democratization of science education possible for a better world.
Thank you 2020 for teaching us so much, we look forward to making a bigger difference during 2021 and beyond.
In the previous episode we talked about how we could solve the problems of science education by building a better future, focusing on leading it in schools because this would make it easier to hear the voice of those who face these kinds of challenges.
For Lab4U, science is vital for learning and marks a guide in moments of change or adjustment in the way of delivering education.
In this third episode, Komal talks with two leaders, Nathan Marks and Javier Baeza, about readjusting the way we are teaching science, an idea raised in an article by the World Economic Forum.
The article, which was the result of the sixteenth forum of young world leaders, explains how COVID-19 has forced major reforms in the way education is delivered, rethinking a radical change in which science, technology, engineering and mathematics are crucial to our future.
Don’t miss this episode about the dialogue of two young people who have led projects with schools, and which highlighted the challenges of implementing educational technology, even more so taking into account the context in which the world is currently moving.
Episode outline:
00:00: Presentations
02:00: How are we rethinking education from a science perspective?
03:40: What do we think about what we are living?
09:00: How do we help the school community in the development of skills?
14:30: How will we face the future in education?
16:50: Is it possible to experience the classroom from the virtual?
25:00: We must think about the challenges and opportunities of education in the future
The new education
The current context that we are living with the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the school communities, both teachers, managers and the more than one billion students who had to leave the schools, according to the WEF.
In Lab4U we have space to know what happens in the classrooms, well, the new classrooms, and how from the virtual it puts on test teachers and complete educational communities, fearing to think that they will not be able to end a process or not knowing skills that the current context and the difficulties have not allowed them to learn and acquire.
Thus, the daily struggle of schools to survive a crisis not only in education, but also in areas of such social impact, such as the economy and the occupation of public spaces that cannot be so easily replaced by teleworking or tele-education, is affecting the teaching of young people.
A world of opportunities of which we want to be a part
The work of LAB4U has been to open spaces of opinion that, from science, mathematics, engineering and other technological areas, allow the work of strengthening the educational communities from a common dialogue between teachers, board members, students and communities of parents and guardians.
This opens a possibility of opportunities of how we imagine learning with the new skills that teachers and students must acquire to bring the classroom to the imaginary of a video call.
Some of the main topics discussed in this episode were
Changing the Rules of the Education Game During the Pandemic.
Adapting to a new reality that demands the attention of both teachers and students.
Rethinking the future with collaboration, critical thinking, creativity and communication (4C).
On the first point, Nathan commented on how the landscape of students and teachers has changed, considering the challenge of an entire semester through the virtual mode, and how this accelerates the challenges of further increasing skills, delivering tools and infrastructure and acquiring learning that allows rethinking the new education.
As for the second, Javier explained that the focus must be on education to give a much better future to students around the world, but do not forget that this experience is totally different from the regular circumstances to which the students were adapted.
A solution with an answer that considers everyone in society and that allows the discussion among various actors in education of the commitment that means a common effort to deliver better skills and tools to teachers to face a difficult context such as the current one.
Helping teachers and knowing is what we need
Accompanying teachers in the educational process is part of what we do at Lab4U, that is why it is so crucial to hear opinions about how the content, educational skills and teaching process is being delivered to teachers and how they are taking it to the virtual classrooms.
Nathan, points out that working in communities and maintaining processes in a way that builds equity in education is key to facing moments of crisis. Double’s challenge!
Understanding what is happening and bringing it into the educational process is a task that requires a lot of attention. Therefore, one of the themes of this episode is how we refocus education from a model that considers the 4Cs (critical thinking, collaboration, communication and creativity).
One of the difficulties teachers are facing, Javier emphasizes, is generating spaces for face-to-face dialogue with students, since the lack of physical distance that should exist today to protect us can be a risk factor in how we will face education in the future.
It is not easy to bring the most sensitive emotionalities or abilities of the human being to the current context in which students live, often running the risk of losing the imaginary of community that emerges in schools.
The challenge of the virtual classroom and the lack of skills
The new codes of education or distance work in educational communities have accelerated the challenges of having adequate infrastructure and content to continue the professional development skills of educators and promoting communication with their students.
Teaching in person is totally different from teaching through tele-education, so the links between teachers and students are experienced in another perspective. Nathan and Javier agreed on this point, which shows how difficult the daily learning has been, the way of evaluation and the search for questions that arise in the classroom.
Educational experiences are based on relationships and that is the great challenge of how we imagine education will be in a few more years, if it will deliver a future in which both educational learning and distance communication can be developed, in an environment with a focus on the digital.
In this sense, the opportunities for teachers and students must be at the center of the policies of deconfinement, being fundamental how the disease develops in the future, since it will allow the gradual return of students to their schools and of teachers in their work spaces.
This should be a task that unites families, students, teachers, directors and all kinds of individuals in the educational chain, since this process is structured from a joint effort, supporting teachers in the delivery of skills to meet future challenges.
So, in Lab4U we present you this episode that seeks to give opinion about the recommendations that education should live in the future, the rethinking from the sciences and how the conversation of the educational communities should go in the right direction of the creation of skills, support tools and search of knowledge that allows to face the changes and new realities of the pandemic.
In the previous episode, Komal spoke with Nathan about the achievement gap, and his experience as a teacher in the US and in Mexico. In this 2nd. episode we talk about how we could solve the problems in science education building a better future.
At Lab4U we are moving the needle to make sure students have access to quality science education.
To make education accessible, Lab4U partnered with the US Embassy and CEMEX to launch a scholarship program for science teachers in Mexico, empowering them with tools to change the way they teach science remotely.
Listen to this episode and learn how Nathan built a community of practice with science teachers making a difference in the lives of thousands of students during a pandemic.
Episode Outline:
min. 01:30: Introductions
min. 03:00: How is Lab4U working with schools around the world
min. 05:30: Partnering with the US Embassy and CEMEX to empower the future of the workforce
min. 21:00: Building a better future and scaling a high impact program
min. 22:05: Learnings from this program and closing remarks
Technology is a means to an end, and not the object.
We believe in the power of technology to build a better future, but technology is a means to an end, and not the object.
In Ed-tech, between technology and education, education comes first where pedagogy and instructional design play a key role in this paradigm.
Joining forces to empower the future of the workforce with CEMEX and the US Embassy
With the support of the US Embassy and CEMEX, Lab4U launched a program that sponsored a group of committed teachers from different states of Mexico.
During the pandemic, a large number of teachers had to re-imagine the way they teach .
If teachers were overburdened before, during a pandemic with remote teaching and distance learning, teaching science or any other subject, just got more demanding.
To support the teacher community in Mexico, 2 sponsors in collaboration with us, decided to help a group of teachers. Empowering them with tools so that they can teach science in an engaging way with technology and with a proper instructional design using inquiry-based learning.
Lab4U Webinars
Lab4U provided different professional development sessions through webinars and Lab4Physics for their students.
With Lab4Physics students transform their smartphones into science labs, not just virtual labs through simulations, but remote science labs using the built-in sensors of smartphones and tablets.
In This episode
Nathan Marks shares some inspiring anecdotes about teachers from different backgrounds and states of Mexico (some even from rural Mexico) who are currently teaching inquiry-based science to students through smartphone technology.
App Lab4Physics
We know that many classes have gone online or hybrid, where technology plays a crucial role, however we understand that technology is not the silver bullet, because one can have a traditional theoretical class through Zoom or Meet or Google Classroom with the same powerpoint without the proper instructional design for an online lesson and expect a lot.
Nevertheless, we believe that pedagogy plays an important role in the learning process, be it in person, or online.
At Lab4U we are supporting teachers to perform inquiry-based activities with their students as learning is much more significant, long lasting and meaningful when students have the chance to learn by doing. Nathan shares how even students from rural Mexico were able to experiment hands-on and take charge of their own learning.
Nathan explains how the latter is achieved by hands-on experiments with a guided approach using inquiry-based learning, where we focus on the pedagogy as opposed to the traditional class. With this approach students lose their fear of making mistakes and that’s what experimentation is all about! At Lab4U we know there is pedagogical importance in uncertainty and error.
In STEM areas there is generally a fear of these subjects being difficult, boring, and not for everybody and this is based on the traditional model that prevails in many schools, where students experience science as “second hand” where we learn about science, the work that others did. But they are not actually engaging in the scientific process themselves.
Building communities of practice
However, Nathan explains that despite the challenges of distance learning and not having a physical lab space, getting students the access to a smartphone that is now a lab has been useful in shifting mindset and changing paradigms, having students taking the initiative to work beyond Lab4U’s lab report and participating in science clubs.
The second insight Nathan shared was around building communities of practice between teachers, where they shared their experiences and learnings between peers. Here Lab4U is fostering and moderating these spaces.
Nathan shared an anecdote of one of our experiments: Moonwalk
Picture Description: Students sharing their experience using Lab4Physics during the pandemic. All photographs are shared with parents permits through the teachers.
In conclusion, Nathan shares the importance of pedagogy and communities of practice.
And we share the impact that Lab4U’s implementations have in communities that need it the most.
Check out Lab4U’s impact in its longitudinal study, a Randomized Controlled Trial published by the Inter-American Bank where the reports shows that students increase their interest to pursue a STEM related career
How can we bring opportunity to every student, everywhere? It may not be easy, but it’s worth it.
In Episode 1 of the English edition of Lab4U Talks, we will be talking about equity in education and how specifically, education technology can be an equalizer to reduce the achievement gap.
This topic is close to our heart because at Lab4U we believe that talent is universal but opportunities are not, and through our work we want to be a part of bringing high-quality science education to all young people.
Your host for Lab4U Talks is Komal Dadlani, joined by Nathan Marks for this conversation. We’re not only colleagues at Lab4U, but Nathan is also a great teacher and human being who cares deeply about this topic and has dedicated his entire professional career to ensuring all children have access to a quality education.
In this conversation, we’ll discuss the unique contexts in which we work–the US & Mexico. We’ll also explore the opportunities–and some of the pitfalls–of education technology, and how we’re thinking about the best way to ensure that technological innovation can be integrated in the classroom, without losing sight of the importance of high-quality pedagogy and teacher support and training.
Episode Outline:
min. 2:43: Introductions
min. 4:15: Nathan explains his passion for education and past experiences as an educator
min. 6:20: Growing awareness of social and educational inequity
min. 8:55: Going deeper: how do we confront inequity in education?
Equity / Inequality in Education, vision from USA, Mexico and LatAm.
In this interesting “point-counterpoint” from Nathan’s home state of Minnesota. The Twin Cities of Minneapolisand St. Paul (and the state of Minnesota in which both are located) are often referenced as places that mix affordability, inclusion, and opportunity better than almost any other major metro area in the US.
min. 12.10: Komal talks about these problems and specifically Lab4U’s mission: democratizing access to quality education.
min. 12:55: The roots of inequality in education in the US
Some awareness and quotes:
min. 13:30: Additionally, Nathan talks about the problem from school segregation and racial academic gaps that continue to affect students in the US today, decades after Brown vs. Board of Education.
“In a 8 year study of data from all public school districts in the U.S. We find that racial school segregation is strongly associated with the magnitude of achievement gaps in 3rd grade, and with the rate at which gaps grow from third to eighth grade. The association of racial segregation with achievement gaps is completely accounted for by racial differences in school poverty: racial segregation appears to be harmful because it concentrates minority students in high-poverty schools, which are, on average, less effective than lower-poverty schools. Finally, we conduct exploratory analyses to examine potential mechanisms through which differential enrollment in high-poverty schools leads to inequality. We find that the effects of school poverty do not appear to be explained by differences in the set of measurable teacher or school characteristics available to us.”
Achievement gap between The rich and the poor, New evidence and possible explanations
min. 18:30: Important distinctions in times of COVID-19
Difference between asynchronous in contrastwith synchronous online teaching
Difference between homeschooling and “home-staying remote-schooling”
Importance of instructional design for online lessons
This crisis has changed the way we do many things, but it may provide new opportunities
min. 21:55: We still need to invest in infrastructure and teacher training and support:
Educational options
Wifi and likewise Universal internet access
Support teachers, in spite of a fast changing environment
Without a doubt, we must invest in technology, but for Lab4U,technology is not the most relevant. We must also consider infrastructure, pedagogy and educational methodologies and teacher support.
Indeed, we look forward to talking about more related topics in an upcoming episode.
Thank you for listening! Also you can listen Lab4U Talks:
Here in this blog you can still read our note podcast teaser or episode 0.
This episode was recorded in our homes, so working remotely. Audio Production: Jose Ferrada, Lab4U. Distribution: Más Más
Finally, Music Credits: Cool Intro – Stings by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/…)
Hello everyone, my name is Komal Dadlani and I am the CEO and co-founder at Lab4U. Our mission is to democratize science and change the way science is taught.
Transforming smartphones in science labs
At Lab4U we are transforming smartphones and tablets into completo science labs. Leveraging and taking advantage of the built-in sensors that mobile devices already have so that every student and teacher around the world can have a lab in their pocket.
We believe that behind great education technology, there needs to be great content and pedagogy. At Lab4U we are developing inquiry-based instructional material and we are supporting teachers through professional development.
Re-imagining science education
We are launching Lab4U Talks, a podcast to share our experience in education, science and technology while giving new perspectives on the problems of science education. And hopefully sparking some dialogues that could be of interest to our community of science educators.
One of the keys to educational transformation is to increase scientific literacy and develop 21st-century skills to prepare our youth for the future of the workforce and STEM related careers.
At Lab4U, we truly believe that talent is universal but opportunities are not, that is why we want to empower teachers and students to be part of the change wherever they are.
In this podcast when talking about science education. We will focus on topics and questions that we are passionate about, such as:
What is inquiry and why is it important?
What is scientific literacy and why is it animportant part of good informed citizenship? Especially when we have to develop critical thinking when it comes to decision making.
Pandemic, also a educational crisis
We started this podcast at a historic moment: during a pandemic that represents not only a health crisis, but also an economic, social, and educational crisis where more than 1.5 billion students have been affected by the closure of schools.
Almost overnight, the entire educational system has been forced to rethink the way we teach and learn.
As we experience the shift to a post-pandemic world, we want to shine a light on the opportunities and challenges that education technology poses focusing on methodologies that can ensure that student learning is more significant than ever.
Many have talked about homeschooling, which is when parents or guardians take charge of the education of their children at home and what we are seeing now goes beyond that, since it is “Home staying remote schooling”, that is.
Online learning vs. emergency remote teaching
We stay at home and there is an educational institution that is making the effort to teach us remotely. We have educators sending material, teachers on Zoom video call or some other video conferencing tool, an effort that we deeply admire.
During this pandemic, we also ask ourselves, is this “online learning” or is it really “emergency remote teaching” without a proper instructional design?
Can we take the same power point presentation that we used in the classroom and use it on zoom call for example?
Here we must speak about instructional design and pedagogy and how can we effectively apply different methodologies such as active learning, inquiry-based learning, project based-learning and much more.
This is just a peek at the many science and education-related topics we hope to address in Lab4U Talks.
We hope that these insights will be useful for you in your day-to-day work with your students and also, in your educational communities.
At Lab4U, we are passionate about science education and we are excited to share our passion with you.
We hope you enjoy this podcast as much as we enjoy producing it.
Thank you for listening!
Moreover, here in this blog, you can read our note podcast episode 1.
The impact of the pandemic on schools and learning communities around the world has been incredibly challenging and demanding.
Experimentation
The COVID-19 health crisis has affected everyone, and educators are no exception. Indeed, the impact of the pandemic on schools and learning communities around the world has been incredibly challenging. Demanding that teachers, administrators, families, and students themselves radically change the way they’re teaching and learning in a short period of time.
While this transition hasn’t been easy for anyone. It’s been especially challenging for students in public schools in low-income communities, which may not have the infrastructure or the resources to adapt to this “new normal”.
Science, experimentation, and inquiry
Lab4U has always sought to bring science, experimentation, and inquiry closer to learning communities all over the world. At this time, we’re especially concerned with the experience of students and teachers in public schools. We’re looking for ways to support them with resources to ensure quality distance learning experiences.
How can we ensure that all students, have the resources and tools they need for a quality science education?
Who can we work with to multiply our impact in STEM education?
Beca Lab4U program: meaningful and lasting impact
Lab on your pocket
In the spirit of generating meaningful and lasting impact in schools and communities in need of support, at the end of May we launched the “Beca Lab4U” (Lab4U Scholarship) program, supported by CEMEX and the USEmbassy in Mexico.
During this program, we were able to offer Lab4Physics Premium for free to a group of teachers and their students in public schools all over Mexico, giving thousands of students access to a lab in their pocket and the chance to learn science through experimentation from their own homes.
After receiving close to 200 applications to the “Beca Lab4U” program and evaluating the interest and motivation of each applicant, we selected a group of 39 physics teachers to participate in this unique program.
The teachers, who come from 7 different states all over Mexico, represent a tremendous diversity of contexts and experiences. But they’re unified by their concern for developing significant STEM knowledgeand skills among their students, and an interest in innovating in science education.
Stundents worked with Lab4Physics from home!
After online training, we created users for more than 1,500 students who were able to access Lab4Physics for the last month of the 2019-20 school year. Indeed, they worked with Lab4Physics from home, using only basic material most students can find at home.
Those that are able to have also been able to participate in synchronous classes with their classmates. And others who may not have internet or computer access have participted in WhatsApp and Messenger conversations with their classmates where they share their analysis and what they’ve discovered as they experiment from home.
Online Training
We hope the learning that comes out of this project have a lasting benefit for participating students. And they also keep learning and being inspired by science throughout their lives.
Are you interested in supporting science education in a high-need school?
There are thousands more students and teachers across Mexico, who are looking to contribute to education initiatives like these. When students and teachers need it most!
COVID-19, or the novel coronavirus, is an emerging, unprecedented, rapidly-evolving situation. It’s of concern to everyone because of its high level of transmission and risk of serious illness and death to those who contract it.
The virus can be serious, regardless of their age: even previously healthy, young people have gotten seriously ill and even died from COVID-19. But statistically speaking, the virus is dangerous for the elderly and for those with certain underlying medical conditions,
In a matter of months, COVID-19 has led to drastic changes to many aspects of day to day life. To try to mitigate the spread of the virus and to protect the most vulnerable.
Given the complexity of this issue, the public health and economic impact, the role of individual actions in determining collective outcomes. And the ever-increasing knowledge about this previously unknown viru. It’s clear that this is serious and complex issue for individuals to navigate, as well as for governments and health authorities to plan for.
Science education and science literacy as a tool to ensure individual safety
But at Lab4U, we believe it’s especially important to consider the impact of this pandemic on educational communities around the world. And to shine a light on the importance of science education and science literacy as a tool to ensure individual safety in situations. Like the one we’re currently living, and to combat misinformation, keeping us all safer and accelerating the end of the pandemic.
In the last few months, we’ve been bombarded by information—some of it true, some of it misleading. But much of it shifting as experts learn more about this novel virus.
To understand this situation, and how best to react, it’s important to think critically. To responsibly consume and share information, and to understand how the scientific process can lead to changing recommendations from public health professionals.
For example: the use of masks in public spaces. Early in the pandemic. The advice from WHO and health authorities was that individual use of masks is not recommended.
The WHO and health authorities do not recommend the individual use of masks
In part, this was due to a lack of evidence about the effectiveness of mask use at curbing spread among individuals outside of hospital settings. But it was also intended to avoid shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) that doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals depend on to stay safe on the job due to a run on these products due to panic buying by individuals.
Later in the pandemic, the advice of public health officials changed. The US CDC and others encouraged everyone to use non-medical-grade masks in public spaces.
Why did guidance change?
Why did guidance change? For a variety of reasons. Yet for some, the seeming about-face has led to mistrust. Those with an understanding of the process of scientific research and discovery may be more tolerant of these shifts. Because they understand that the shifting guidance reflects the scientific process and an ever-evolving understanding of the virus:
Its risks
Transmission pathways
And other factors.
While it will take time for all of the impacts of this ongoing crisis to become clear. One of the most important takeaways is a renewed focus on the importance of science literacy. A well-informed population, is a population that’s prepared to successfully navigate a challenge like the one posed by the COVID-19 outbreak.
At Lab4U, we want to be a part of this change
Helping students and teachers around the world become more scientifically literate.
As always, Lab4U is concerned with increasing access to a quality science education for everyone, promoting inquiry and experimentation.
As part of this commitment, we’ve organized dozens of webinars and special opportunities for science educators, to bring innovative tools
Contact us when you need tomknow new ways of working remotely
Our team of science experts would be happy to help. Our email is [email protected]
