Collaborative Learning in Science
We are seeing more and more that collaboration is the key to learning, both in and out of the classroom. During recent years, science educators have shown interest in moving students toward collaborative models of education in order to better equip them for their professions. Because traditional teaching of science often encourages students to merely learn facts and rules rather than apply scientific principles to practical situations, it is believed that a teacher-centric classroom is slowly but definitely becoming a thing of the past. There are ways, however, in which collaborative learning can be utilized in the classroom without minimizing instructor interaction.
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Collaboration in the Laboratory
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Practical laboratory work allows students to solve problems and work collaboratively in order to achieve any given scientific task. The product of such experiments is knowledge. Examples include chemistry experiments involving boiling points, learning the properties of physics, exploration of human and animal bodies, and cell growth experiments using petri dishes. It is important that these activities encourage students to explore, express, discuss and utilize what they see apart from what's been laid out in textbooks. Instructors should facilitate gray-area thinking.
Digital Libraries and Science Repositories
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The Internet has many resources for collaborative learning. This is important because it allows students to explore many differing opinions that may illustrate things textbooks miss. Digital libraries and science repositories are good places to start. Students can glean information on their own before using what they've learned in collaborative settings with their fellow students.
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Virtual Field Trips
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Students love to learn outside of the classroom, probably because it shows them the wonder of science in real world settings. But taking students on field trips can be cumbersome and expensive, so most instructors and schools are forced to limit the number of field trips taken each year. By exploring other places and environments online, such as volcanic craters, oceanic and marine environments---and even inside the human body---students can increase their "hands-on" experience without having to spend thousands of dollars doing it. Facilitating discussion and finding interactive programs online will increase the collaborative experience even more.
Educational Science Games
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Teaching students to think together is a good way to increase collaboration in the classroom. By splitting students into groups to engage in science games, students learn the importance of contributing to the group, as well as the benefit of working together. Science games in the classroom may include science trivia games, online strategy games and virtual experiments held over the course of several months or a year. It can be helpful for groups to elect a spokesperson for expediency, but it's also good to encourage each student to find a specific task or goal within each group and to report on that goal regularly.
Encourage Diversity in Your Experiments
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Experiments are better geared toward collaboration when they consist of both classroom and virtual components. Including a research component in the experiment teaches students how to retrieve information. Dividing the tasks can make an otherwise mundane situation more collaborative. If possible, include a remote component as well; hands-on learning in the classroom can be more effective if part of the experiment or data retrieval happens elsewhere (either on a field trip or by utilizing a science repository online).
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