5 Alternatives to Online Lab Simulations: Making the most of remote science teaching

We as science teachers are in a tight spot! The most exciting part of teaching science is that kids get to interact with the physical world as they make predictions and gain observations. Unless, of course, you are teaching during a pandemic. So many of us have uncertain futures. We don't know if we will be in the classroom or not. I have watched on social media, the flood of requests asking for "best online simulations". I may be very unpopular here, but online simulations suck. I know why they exist. I know they are better than nothing. But they still suck.

Here, I will outline 5 alternatives to lab simulations. No, I haven't written your lesson plans for you. No, I don't have labs for sale on TPT (at least not for this post!). No, you won't be able to avoid online simulations. Yes, this will get your creativity flowing. And yes, your students will thank you (via their engagement, teenagers rarely actually thank you.)

1. Have the students make a game.

This is a science game website, so I would be remiss if I don't plug the use of games in curriculum. There are tons of ways that your students can practice applying concepts as they create games. They are forced to recognize patterns, create real scenarios, problem solve the game play. These are all scientific principles on their own. When you integrate content into the game, you are allowing the student to grow in a way that a cartoon simulation just won't do. Quarantine has caused me to double down on this method in my own family. I have a 14 year-old and an 11 year-old. They know that if they are "bored", dad will pull out the butcher paper and tell them to create their own game. Our game closet (which has over 90 commercially produced games) is also littered with their creations. From Crush Depth, Domain, Super Ninja Bunnies, and Mathaconda their butcher paper masterpieces caused their minds to fully engage. By the way, my entrepreneurial sons are launching Mathaconda on Kickstarter soon!

2. Report a real life application

There is nothing better than when a student comes rushing back into class and announces that something they learned in class actually applied in the "real world". It's like they are surprised. Send them on a scavenger hunt of their world to find ways that the content applies. I primarily teach chemistry. If I walked through my garage right now (which I can walk through, thanks to the cleaning time afforded by quarantine) I could find 20 applications of something that I teach. Send the students with their phone into the world to document what they find. Even if they don't understand everything about LEDs and electrons, they can still make a connection between the photons produces and the electrons involved. Even if they don't understand everything in an electrochemical cell, they can find application in their mom's dead car battery. The world is big, and your students may tend to make it very small during remote teaching. Help them spread their wings and open their eyes.

3. Use household chemicals

I know, there are only so many sodium bicarbonate volcanoes a person can make without losing its luster. But your house is literally littered with potential for chemical reactions. Salt, sugar, magnesium sulfate (epsom salt), starch, iodine, isopropanol, sodium bicarboate, acetic acid, copper wire, aluminum foil, iron, coins, jewelry cleaner, left over fireworks, stump remover (potassium nitrate), Drano, bleach, ammonia...

Are you kidding? You can't come up with some labs using those chemicals? And yes, before anyone cries wolf and tells me that the kids will poison themselves if they just start dumping chemicals together, I know there has to be guidance. But seriously, their houses are virtual chemical storerooms. Utilize it! This might mean making your labs more qualitative, as scales and probes are hard to share at home. But qualitative data from real experiments will engage them more than quantitative data from a cartoon simulation.

4. Teach a family member

I hated chemistry. At least until I had to teach it. Now, having taught chemistry for 17 years, there is nothing that I enjoy more. And what was that stimulus? Learning to teach. Have your students teach their family over dinner. Tell them that their dad has to take a quiz at the end, and his grade on the quiz will be their grade. Your students will very quickly recognize their inadequacies and figure out a way to remedy them. And that is engagement. I still remember when I first started teaching AP chemistry, I had to study a lot. I had to engage my brain. I can still hear the song I used to sing to my then-infant son about "trigonal bipyramidal". It's a wonderful song. But more than the melody, in order to teach the content, I had to engage the content. And that is a teaching win.

5. Make a flipgrid

Our school uses Teams as our platform. Flipgrid is a plugin that allows students to film themselves, post to the class, and interact with each other in a social-media-yet-still-educational setting. Last spring, during quarantine, I gave the kids the Hot Air Balloon Challenge. I gave them a materials list and they had to film their attempts to get a hot air balloon flying. We had so much fun finding the "Greatest Crash", "Fastest Flight", "Most Ugly Balloon" awards. I knew that I was getting traction when I started to see the moms posting the flipgrid videos on facebook (you know, the social media where old people are). Parents were thanking me for the opportunity to connect with their kids in chemistry. In the two classes that posted their videos, there were over 1,500 views of projects. Engaged? For sure.

I hope that these few thoughts get your creativity flowing. Get students off of their screens and into the real world. Please reply with any more ideas that we can share!