Students seem to learn best in an active learning environment that offers information and ideas, opportunities for hands-on experiments, and room for reflective thinking. Labs generally provide plenty of information and hands-on experiments, but often lack the reflective part.
I usually start my labs with a short review/discussion about the previous week's lab. Instead of having the students just talk about it, I will now give them a few minutes to write down their thoughts about that lab and then ask one or two members of each group to read their responses to the whole class. I think this will also be a good way to eventually involve all students in these discussions. Before the actual activity, I will give back and go over the graded lab reports to provide the students with feedback about their lab performance and clarify remaining questions.
The students will not only be actively involved in an experiment, but also in obtaining the ideas and information necessary to do so. Although I will provide information regarding the biomechanical principles underlying each lab experiment and give (minimal) instructions so that they can grasp the concept, the students are required to come prepared to class. In short, I expect them to be familiar with the procedures outlined in the lab manual and "ready to go." After the experiment, the students must explain their findings in the lab report. In addition to the lab experiments, the students will learn the Peak Motus system. Each group will analyze kinematic data of a chosen activity and present in a Power Point presentation.
Although I’m not responsible for the lab content, I think that I will be offering my students an environment that encourages active learning.
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