Facilitating Hands-On in a Virtual Learning Environment

Last week I was in a classroom discussing some strategies with a teacher about how to allow their Clinical Rotation students to do project-based labs with her Principles of Health Science students when they were notified their rotation sites were no longer granting access to school districts to slow the spread of COVID-19. We then began to brainstorm that if (and only if) they switched to virtual learning, that the teacher could put together a PBL "goodie bag" with components that could be used for some small projects at home. Now that we are facing indefinite school closures, the time to send these supplies home from school has passed.

Many of our customers will find that their teachers will be able to facilitate their classes fully online and that many activities can be completed at home. But, a shining factor of what makes a learning system special is the wealth of robust hands-on projects available for students.

To supplement lab projects, try incorporating some of these hands-on activities and PBLs into your virtual learning classroom. They require few to no physical resources and many can be done with found objects. It's time to flex that design process muscle! (*Asterisked items are full lessons from teachengineering.org).

• Have students create a stop-motion video using the free app Stop Motion Studio on iOS and Android. You can assign a theme/lesson, or have them document a small portion of their experience.
• What about my Health Science students? Have them create anatomically correct sculptures from found objects. Label and make a video presentation. Here's some inspiration.
• Build a bridge out of toothpicks, popsicle sticks, *spaghetti, *straws, or even paper!
• *Create an epic Rube Goldberg Machine. Here's the lesson and here are some ultimate examples.
• *Build a roller coaster with foam tubing or other materials.
• *Create a device carrier for crutches or make a prosthetic device.
• *Pharmacology students can observe how pills dissolve in the stomach with this demo.
• *Make a model microfluidic device using Jell-O.