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- Jun 24, 2011
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This semester I'll be taking to science courses with labs (ecology/evolution and gen chem I) and I want to do well in the lab portions. I know from past history that I'm easily an A student in lecture, based in part on my ability to memorize large amounts of material quickly and retain it until test day (one of the advantages of having been involved in theater since you were thirteen is that you learn how to memorize your lines!). However, in labs I don't do quite so well. From experience I know I'll do fine on lab quizzes - I can read a lab manual and understand it - but that I am a B or C level student when it comes to the hands-on skills.
I find it very difficult to read about how to perform a procedure, listen to the lab instructor lecture on how to perform a procedure (perhaps watching her do it) and then go and do it myself well enough to get usable data for the lab report. If I am given a chance to practice a skill I can get pretty good at it, but that hasn't been my experience in the lab portion of science courses - it seems like you learn a "skill" for each particular lab class, and that skill isn't built upon in subsequent labs necessarily.
A professor I spoke to about this suggested that I audit other lab sections, so that even if I can't participate in the other labs, I can at least watch more demonstrations by the lab instructor/watch other students. And that perhaps when sections thin out over the course of the semester, there'll be room for me actually to practice.
Anyone else have tips? I've always been more book-smart than hands on, and I'd like to make up for it at least a little.
I find it very difficult to read about how to perform a procedure, listen to the lab instructor lecture on how to perform a procedure (perhaps watching her do it) and then go and do it myself well enough to get usable data for the lab report. If I am given a chance to practice a skill I can get pretty good at it, but that hasn't been my experience in the lab portion of science courses - it seems like you learn a "skill" for each particular lab class, and that skill isn't built upon in subsequent labs necessarily.
A professor I spoke to about this suggested that I audit other lab sections, so that even if I can't participate in the other labs, I can at least watch more demonstrations by the lab instructor/watch other students. And that perhaps when sections thin out over the course of the semester, there'll be room for me actually to practice.
Anyone else have tips? I've always been more book-smart than hands on, and I'd like to make up for it at least a little.