Teaching and Learning in Lab Environment
30 Roles and Responsibilities of Lab Demonstrators
Lab demonstrators are crucial to undergrad students’ learning at Brock. They help students to experiment, link experiments to concepts, learn technical skills, etc.
In this chapter, you will learn about
- roles and responsibilities of lab demonstrators.
- lab facilitation tips and methods.
- engaging students in a lab environment.
The Role of Lab Demonstrators
A lab demonstrator helps students perform experiments and analyze the data collected during a lab session. More broadly, a lab demonstrator assists students in understanding and applying important scientific or mathematical concepts.
Support for Lab Demonstrators
Typically, lab demonstrators are provided with instructions or notes from the Senior Lab Demonstrator or Course Instructor. Some courses also require regular meetings to prepare lab demonstrators for each session. If a lab demonstrator requires clarification, they must contact the Senior Lab Demonstrator or Course Instructor in advance of the lab.
Engagement during the Lab
Skill acquisition and development in the lab environment is an important part of some programs and students’ engagement in lab significantly affects their academic performance. Below are some ways you can have an effective presence in the lab with your students.
- Responding to requests: Take up a visible position at the edge of the lab and wait to be summoned by students with request for help.
- Watch and approach: Try to spot students needing assistance and approach them in kind and caring manner.
- Systemic visits: Approach students one by one or group by group so that everyone’s work is monitored and no one is left out. You can also stay in one spot but ensure that all students must pass you at some point in the lab (i.e. To obtain necessary equipment).
- Mingling: Take a random route through the lab and assess needs while meandering through the class. Observe students and pose and answer questions as required.
Advice for Lab Demonstrators
- Be compassionate, students have many other things going on in their lives.
- Create a personal and positive learning environment so that the student feels relaxed and comfortable.
- Reassure and reinforce that learning is a process and that students must put in work in order to be successful in the course.
- Ensure that you are prepared for each lab and ready to teach the students.
- Keep students on track during the lab session.
- One approach is to avoid giving students all of the instructions at the beginning of the session, as this takes a lot of time and can be overwhelming. Instead, breakdown the procedure into sections and stagger the delivery of instructions as students move through the experiment.
- Make yourself available to provide assistance to students via “office hours.” This may involve answering student questions online (via email and/or Brightspace) outside of the lab session.
- Inform students of your online availability during the first session.
- Do not feel obligated to answer questions outside of normal working hours (e.g. on weekends, holidays, or late at night).
- Always provide the most correct information possible.
- Be sure to closely follow the directions and marking outlines developed by Senior Lab Demonstrators and course instructors.
- Promote culture of collaborative learning and that no one is all-knowing. When you do not know the answer to a question you can respond with “You’ve asked a good question and I don’t have the answer yet, but you work on it and I’ll work on it and let’s see what we come up with.”
(Our thanks to Cailin Rothwell, Biological Sciences, for reviewing and updating this section originally developed by Senior Lab Demonstrator. Thank you also to Stephanie Martin and Ellen Maissan, Recipient of the 1998/99 Senior TA Award, for additional comments.)
