How to Pump Up AP Science Scores

Are you looking for a way to improve the pass rates or increase scores on the College Board Advanced Placement (AP) exams for laboratory science?  Boosting scores isn't easy.

A few years ago, an AP chemistry teacher faced this problem.  He had been working with the prescribed labs from the College Board but had disappointing scores.  His students just weren't learning the material.  You might fault this teacher, but he has great ratings.  Besides, conditions in his school are not very conducive to success here with classes of over 30 students and limited lab budgets.

His first try at fixing the problem was to pay for a virtual lab system that made great claims.  He pared down the lab time but kept with the College Board guidelines and just added in these virtual labs that were the usual animated simulations.  Despite this effort, nothing changed.

Fortunately for him, his district had a contract for another option, online experiential science lessons using real experiments and hands-on data measurements.  They even cost less than his first attempt.  He was desperate and ready to try anything.  So, he signed up his classes.  The difference, he says, was amazing.  His students learned the material.  Their AP exam grades went up.  He has been renewing his subscription ever since.

How can an online service produce better results than either wet labs or the premier virtual lab system?  There's no one-word answer to this question.  It takes a combination of factors to move the needle in education.  Consider a few of the factors involved here that are found in Smart Science® online experiential science lessons.

• Real experiments.  Nearly every virtual lab does not have these.  Only real labs are convincing experiences for students.  They know full well that those animated simulations aren't real.  To some, they may even seem pointless.  Furthermore, real experiments have the systematic and random errors of the real world that help students understand the true nature of science.
• Real experiments, part II.  Wet labs have real experiments too.  However, the range of experiments you can do in a classroom is severely limited by time and cost.  Online real experiments don't have this limitation so that students can explore a given topic more deeply.
• Hands-on data measurement.  Those animated simulations (virtual labs) merely hand the data to students.  Those data come from an algorithm and can be created without limit and with perfect precision. While you can learn a bit about some theory this way, you learn little about science.  Moreover, students have no real data ownership, an important factor in getting them to pay attention to the data analysis part of their labs.
• Hands-on data measurement, part II.  Taking data yourself adds a very important dimension to the science lab experience.  Students have to exercise care and judgment.  The care part is obvious.  Sloppy data collection creates sloppy data.  Judgment may come in when choosing how to categorize data or when deciding whether to include data that is unclear, such as the height of a tide when it's foggy and you can just barely make out the water level.
• Hypothesizing.  Before beginning experiments, students should spend some time thinking about what they're about to do.  A service that includes this step will have better outcomes than one that does not.  It's best if students can write alternative hypotheses if they choose but not edit ones that they already wrote.
• Background information.  Before hypothesizing and during experimentation, students should have access to plenty of background material to help them understand the topic they are addressing.  The Smart Science system has extensive background information available for a mouse click (or screen tap).
• Proven pedagogy.  Many lab systems, both the online type and lab kits, have little pedagogy in them.  Some have been striving to catch up here, but only the Smart Science system had a strong pedagogy built in from the beginning.  It's called the 5+1 pedagogy and consists of the following.
• Think - Provide a short explanation of the experiments with a little background and ask questions that focus on prior knowledge and on the sort of thinking necessary to be successful in this unit.  Provide fully worked-out answers to questions before proceeding.
• Hypothesize - Give a brief summary of what's about to be done, a video explaining the mechanics of data collection, and plenty of background information so that students can formulate hypotheses.
• Explore - Have a reasonable range of experiments for students to work with.  Let them measure their own data using their care and judgment.  Continue to provide support.
• Reflect - Deliver a set of questions that forces students to think about the experiments that they have just investigated.  Allow them to use all resources, including the experimental data, to help in answering the questions. Give them the fully worked-out solutions to all questions before proceeding.
• Explain - Write a lab report in a format that is consistent across the entire set of lessons.  This format depends on the grade level and can be customized for specific institutions.  Students must explain their findings in their own words for the science investigation experience to stick with them.
• + Extend - This is another essay format that asks students to explore beyond the ordinary boundaries of the lesson.
• Customization options.  No two schools or classrooms are exactly alike.  Sometimes, you must have something different from the default.  You can have students write their own hypotheses or pick from a pre-written list.  You can even change this mode in the middle of a course.  You can choose to have curves fit to student data or leave it raw and have students do their analysis offline.
• Review at any time.  Students can review all of their Smart Science work any time during the course.  This ability to log in and review work -- and even do experiments over again -- adds considerably to their ability to pass those pesky AP exams.
• Vocabulary.  The built-in Science Dictionary has over 1,000 terms defined in simple language.  Selected terms are included in each lesson as appropriate to the topic.  Students don't have to go elsewhere to find out what all of those science phrases mean.
• HTML5.  While HTML5 is a technical issue, it opens the door to many things.
• Device agnostic.  Students are able to get to their Smart Science lessons even on a smart phone as well as tablets, Chromebooks, Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux.  Only an HTML5-compatible browser is necessary with support for canvas and video tags.
• Language accessibility.  Google translate will turn our lesson pages into just about any language commonly used, around 80 altogether.  Because most of our content is written in simple English, the translation works very well.
• Accessibility.  We not only use HTML5, we also use GWT, which automatically includes many accessibility features.  HTML5 also allows for ready speaking of content by various programs.  Just highlight and click.

Look for more information at http://www.smartscience.net, or just give us a call at the number at the top of the home page.  There's even a link there so that you can try out our technology for yourself.

© 2015 by Smart Science Education Inc., U.S.A. www.smartscience.net
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