Grounded from the constructivist lens of teaching, providing authentic learning through hands-on experiences has become an important aspect in the delivery of science education. This can be achieved by implementing laboratory experiments, in which students become active learners who exemplify the practices of scientific inquiry: asking questions, formulating hypotheses, conducting investigations, collecting and analyzing data, and developing sound conclusions. While experiments can undoubtedly facilitate students’ deep understanding of scientific concepts and the development of process skills, they also induce students’ curiosity and positive attitudes towards learning science. However, considering that the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted the educational processes to quickly move online, it is important to think of how authentic learning can still be fostered through experimentations. It has indeed become a pedagogical challenge for teachers to provide hands-on learning experiences that can trigger students' conceptual understanding and scientific process skills. It is in this context that home-based experiments have become increasingly recognized to augment students’ understanding and process skills amidst the online distance learning environment.

Home-based experiments entail the utilization of the common household materials that can aid in students’ scientific investigation. Some studies that attempted to investigate the effectiveness of home-based experiments in teaching scientific concepts; one of which is the study of Youssed et al. (2021) titled “Home-based physiology labs in the time of COVID-19 prove popular with medical students.” In their study, the teacher-researchers developed Physiology experiments that involved the use of easily accessible household materials coupled with mobile applications. Findings showed that students had strong satisfaction with their learning experience and were enthusiastic toward home-based laboratory exercises.

As an attempt to implement home-based experiments, I asked my students to conduct an experiment about DNA extraction using some simple household items such as water, salt, dish soap and rubbing alcohol. A sample video documentation can be watched below:

Moreover, I, together with my student research advisees, conducted an action research on the effectiveness of home-based experiments in enhancing students' conceptual understanding and science process skills on heat transfer among Grade 7 students in a public Secondary high school. We have found out that there is a significant improvement in students’ conceptual understanding after conducting home-based experiments. However, there is no significant improvement in students' science process skills after conducting home-based experiments. We were also able to explore the factors that have affected the effectiveness of home-based experiments, such as unavailability of materials, safety concern, process-related issues, absence of guidance and time constraint. We have suggested to continue to implement the home-based experiment in enhancing students’ conceptual understanding and give greater emphasis on science process skills and to address first the challenges encountered to further improve the delivery of this low-cost instructional innovation.

Sample home-based experiments that we used can be found below:

Indeed, because of the pandemic, our teaching practices have evolved continuously. In-class laboratory experiments were replaced by home-based experiments, enabling the delivery of scientific inquiry in a remote distance learning environment. Teachers simply need to become more resourceful and creative in order to come up with innovative ideas to support students' learning during difficult times.