Location
Canyon, TX
Classification
4-year Public, Medium
Discipline
Earth Science
Established in 1910, West Texas A&M University (WTAMU) serves nearly 10,000 students and offers more than 60 undergraduate programs, 45 graduate degree programs, and over 40 online degrees.
Focused on providing an accessible online earth science laboratory experience while maintaining quality instruction, Dr. Naruki Hiranuma is an Associate Professor of Environmental Science and has worked at WTAMU for the last 8 years. He uses Science Interactive to deliver an engaging and effective lab experience for online students, especially non-traditional students
Expanding Access to Environmental Sciences for Non-traditional Students
Dr. Hiranuma partnered with Science Interactive to deliver authentic environmental science, atmospheric and earth chemistry courses online. His goals include:
- Providing online students with a high-quality, hands-on lab experience that replicates the rigor of an on-campus lab.
- Connecting more directly the concepts of digital lessons and lectures to hands-on labs in order for students to more easily understand man’s impact on the environment.
- Ensuring a learning environment that more deeply engages students in active learning opportunities that support the development of problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.
The Benefits
Setting Up Students for Success & Deeper Engagement
Dr. Hiranuma looked to design his online earth science courses with laboratory components that could engage online students in ways similar to those of on-campus labs.
To replicate a seated lab class as closely as possible, he selected hands-on experiments and lessons from Science Interactive’s Earth Science offerings that align with his course learning outcomes.
He was confident in the quality of each lab because they are designed by Ph.D. scientists at Science Interactive, peer-reviewed by instructors who are actively teaching online, and certified by Quality Matters, a global organization leading quality assurance in online learning in which West Texas A&M University is a member. Dr. Hiranuma also valued having the ability to further customize the labs to align with his courses and teaching style.
Just as important, Dr. Hiranuma purposefully aligned the labs with his lecture topics to ensure students could connect lecture concepts to real-world application, which is key for his students to develop their marketable skills for career development in STEM.
In his Fundamentals of Environmental Science and Atmospheric & Earth Chemistry courses, students learn how human activities can modulate the environment, and his students are exposed to the fundamental concepts associated with climate change. Using Science Interactive hands-on lab kit, students engage more deeply with this course material as they apply theory and concept to real-world situations.
For example, in this hands-on Water Quality Lab, students analyze the water quality of 3 samples for PH, phosphates, nitrates, and fecal coliform levels. They then relate that quality to environmental sources of contamination in order to understand the impact of humans and the environment on the quality of our water.
This hands-on Water Quality lab allows students to test water qualities and see how different contaminants affect the quality of water.
Dr. Hiranuma couples the hands-on labs with virtual lab simulations. He does this to maintain course affordability and to reinforce the hands-on learning and his lecture topics. This also allows students to observe the effects of environmental phenomena that would be difficult, if not impossible to observe, in a lab.
In this virtual Greenhouse Effect lab, students can model the effects of greenhouse gas concentrations on global average temperatures, while examining the effects of clouds on solar radiation, infrared radiation, and atmospheric temperatures.
“I felt like the labs demonstrated real life applications of environmental science. I enjoyed the labs. They opened my mind to some new philosophies that I was previously unaware of.”
– Environmental Science Student, West Texas A&M University
An important consideration, Dr. Hiranuma was careful to ensure rigor without making it overwhelming for non-science majors. Earth science offers contemporary interests to a diverse population of students, and an online lab kit is a great tool to engage the non-science cohort to learn in a personal setting. At the same time, the goal of many of the hands-on labs is to provide students with an enriching experience that demands a level of accountability and ownership over their learning, just as it would in an on-campus lab setting.
Hands-on kits purpose-built for Earth Science are ready to ship direct to students or to bookstores so you can save time and don’t have to handle sourcing, coordinating, or any other logistics — making hands-on labs easier than ever.
Dr. Hiranuma’s Strategies & Tips for Success
- At-Home Lab Safety: Because an instructor cannot be onsite to supervise each student’s lab, safety is priority for Dr. Hiranuma. Students complete a mandatory lab safety lesson prior to accessing course content. During these lessons, students receive step-by-step instructions, guidance on each experiment, as well as supporting videos and visuals. Students practice preparing their lab space, using personal protective equipment, and handling all lab equipment and chemicals — standard protocols for all Science Interactive labs to minimize risks but still provide students with a true-to-life lab experience.
- Clear Expectations & Group Orientations: Whether hands-on or virtual, he prioritizes setting expectations and clear lab grading guidelines. He conducts group lab orientations virtually and provides estimated time completion guides so students feel prepared when they begin their hands-on labs. In addition to getting students acclimated to an online science lab experience, these online orientations help him understand students’ backgrounds and diverse learning needs, as well as allow him to share with students the pathway to success in his courses.
- Student Feedback: As students perform the hands-on labs and submit lab reports throughout the course, Dr. Hiranuma provides clear and constructive feedback on each student’s performance, offers weekly virtual office hours, and uses weekly review emails and Slack posts to build momentum for engagement, reinforce learning outcomes, and support students — especially critical for non-majors or students new to taking labs online.
On the flip side of it, Professor Hiranuma delivers all of his online labs with this in mind: “The more you offer, the more you learn.” That’s why he conducts surveys and collects expectations from his students, asking students for their feedback and what they expect their biggest challenges to be that semester. With this information, he’s able to provide more personalized support and feedback for each student — and continue improving how he delivers his online lab courses.
