How do students percieve the labs they take?

Labs in science education have been long questioned in their purpose and utility, though they are valued for their ability to enable practical and critical thinking skills [2]. In order to assess the perspective of students on their own labs, I decided to create a survey for this research to gather data.

Research Questions

How do students perceive the labs they take?

What scientific skills do students feel labs they take work with involve?

Do they feel that the labs they take are helpful and/or interesting?

Methods

Survey
- 9 Frequency Likert scale questions [1]
- 2 Opinionated Likert scale questions [2]
- 3 Open ended questions on subject and other thoughts

Sent out to CHM 145, PHY 184, and BIO 115
- total of approximately 1250 students who would receive it

Results/Findings and Discussion

[Enter research/findings and discussion. Adjust title as needed.]

Findings

Out of 1250 students the survey could have been received by, there were a total of 52 responses.

41 of the responses were by first year students, 10 were by second year students, and 1 was a third year student.

49 responses were chemistry students, 2 were biology students, 1 was a physics student.

Lab students appear to feel they frequently determine known outcomes, use a guided lab manual, and maintain a lab notebook.

Half appear to feel they frequently write lab reports.

They feel they determine an unknown outcome, design own experiment, or read scientific papers very little if at all.

None said they designed a poster and the two biology students said they once gave a presentation.

Discussion

Physics and biology students appear more likely to not respond to surveys about their respective labs.

The inconsistency in answers seems to imply students aren't always familiar with whether their activities in labs fit these categories.

While majority agree that the labs are helpful and interesting, there are still a number of students who disagree with these statements.

This data is also misleading at a glance because it isn't the same people always agreeing to both statements.

Graph showing frequency students feel they determine known/unknown outcomes, use a guided lab manual, design a poster, design their own experiment, give a presentation, read scientific papers, maintain a lab notebook, and write lab reports. Likert scale is constantly, more than once, once, and never

Same bar chart as above but highlighting the two biology reponses

Same as above two graphs but highlighting singular physics response

Frequency of responses for whether students find their labs helpful and whether they find them interesting. Majority response is agree to both, with between 5 and 10 strongly agree. About 10 to 15 disagree, with about 5 strongly disagreeing. The responses to both questions are (deceptively) correlated.

Sankey diagram that shows actual correlation of answers between two questions mentioned above. Though responses were correlated above, here you can see the same students aren't agreeing or disagreeing to both questions. Students are agreeing or disagreeing to one question then answering the opposite to the other, but the totals are saying around the same.

Conclusions and Future Study

While majority agreement with helpfulness and interest is good, the amount disagreeing cannot be ignored. The amount of disinterest to not not respond to the survey at all also cannot be ignored given only about 4% of potential students that could respond did. Every category asked for in the Likert scale questions are aspects of performing science and what is concerning isn't the infrequency of their usage in labs, but also that the infrequency in responses in a given subject implies that students in science labs aren't familiar with these aspects of science. Further work and study should likely be done in using labs to make science itself accessible to students and to gather more information on student opinion beyond a 4% response rate. As is, I would estimate a significant amount of students see labs more as a verification of lecture information far over seeing them as a practice of science.

The following is an image of poster presented at the 2026 Undergraduate Research Forum

Poster containing: 1, introduction focused on utility and purpose of labs. 2, Methods discussing survey containing 9 Frequency Likert scale questions, 2 Opinionated Likert scale questions, and 3 open ended questions on subject and other thoughts as well as it being sent to CHM 145, PHY 184, and BIO 115 for a total of 1250 potential students. 3, A results sections showing that there were 52 responses, including only 2 from physics students, graphs showing the responses for the Likert scale questions showing that majority determine an outcome known by instructor, use a guided lab manual and maintain a lab notebook often, about half write lab reports often, and few determine outcomes known not by instructor or student, design own experiment, give a presentation, or read scientific papers, and none say they have ever designed a poster in lab, there are also graphs showing that majority said agree the labs were interesting and helpful to learning, but it's not the same people consistently answering both questions the same. 4, a discussion section pointing out majority of responses being from chemistry students, that there are still those that feel the lab is unhelpful or uninteresting, and that further work could be done to further gauge labs and get students more interested.

References

[1] Geschwind, G., Micol Alemani, Fox, M. F. J, P. S. W. M. Logman, Tufino, E., & Lewandowski, H. J. (2024). Development of a global landscape of undergraduate physics laboratory courses. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 20(2). https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.020117

[2] Barrie, S. C., Bucat, R. B., Buntine, M. A., Burke da Silva, K., Crisp, G. T., George, A. V., Jamie, I. M., Kable, S. H., Lim, K. F., Pyke, S. M., Read, J. R., Sharma, M. D., & Yeung, A. (2015). Development, Evaluation and Use of a Student Experience Survey in Undergraduate Science Laboratories: The Advancing Science by Enhancing Learning in the Laboratory Student Laboratory Learning Experience Survey. International Journal of Science Education, 37(11), 1795–1814. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2015.1052585

[3] Walker, J. P., Sampson, V., Southerland, S., & Enderle, P. J. (2016). Using the laboratory to engage all students in science practices. Chemistry Education Research and Practice, 17(4), 1098–1113. https://doi.org/10.1039/c6rp00093b

NACE Career Readiness Competencies

Career + Self-Development

As my future career is planned to be a high school science teacher, understanding how students view labs and how they enable them to grow as scientists will be fundamental to my job. This research experience has allowed me to think about labs in ways I otherwise wouldn't have.

Critical Thinking

I had to synthesize multiple views on labs and their purpose as well as look through many sources for current issues and potential solutions. I then had to match these theoretical ideas up against diverse student opinions and then attempt to assess would I could conclude while also being aware of my own personal lab experiences. I have my own feelings on labs, but I had to both be aware of these biases and limit their impact on conclusions.

Technology

I had to create and use a google survey for the first time in the process of this research. This required me to become familiar enough with it to force those who did not consent to be skipped through the survey and to look at results. I then also used a google sheet to look through this data, which I eventually imported to Microsoft excel in order to make my graph visuals. One of my visuals is a Sankey diagram, which I had to use a separate site to make that required inputs into a pre-made code. I then also brought my visuals together on a google drawing, before making my poster in a google slide.

Research Compliance Protocols

Using research, I created a survey and emails for professors and students.

The survey included a consent page that could be denied as well as a confirmation page that the subject was over 18 years old.

Not providing consent or confirming to be over 18 would submit the survey without being able to answer any of the questions.

Subjects would be assured in email and in consent page that their involvement was voluntary and anonymous.

This survey and these emails were then sent to be IRB approved for usage with human subjects.

The number designated during this process was #05111e.

After a round of adjustments to the research description in the review, the proposed research was IRB approved.

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