Abstract:

This paper shows the flipped-classroom approach used for the laboratory sessions of a Science subject, such as the compulsory Meteorology-Climatology subject taught in the Degree in Environmental Sciences of the University of Valencia (UV). After the COVID-19 pandemic confinement, the face-to-face learning had to be reduced to 50 % to decrease the rate of students at laboratory, and the practical sessions should to be redesigned for it. Audiovisual materials were prepared to explain the physical concepts and laboratory procedures to students before the sessions. Students were encouraged to prepare the practical sessions by watching the videos through the UV’s multimedia service before attending the face-to-face sessions, in which students just acquired and processed experimental data. The success of the learning results and materials led us to adapt them to a flipped-classroom methodology for these lab sessions in the subsequent years, with satisfactory results as shown by means of student surveys. The analisys of the answers to the surveys confirms that students generally watched the videos (98% used videos for more than the 75% of the practicals), and their opinions about the use of a flipped-classroom methodology for lab sessions of a science subject were improved after the experience (from 63% to 87%, and from 71% to 91% specifically for the lab sessions in the Meteorology-Climatology subject), showing a high degree of satisfaction with the method used for the Meteorology-Climatology lab sessions. For the latter question, 70% of the students answered with the best marks for the flipped-classroom experience as compared to tradional methods, and just a 8% answered with the lowest marks.

Keywords:

Laboratory sessions, learning innovations, flipped-classroom, science degree.