VIRTUAL LABORATORIES AS A WAY TO ENHANCE STUDENTS LEARNING IN BIOSCIENCES

The rapid development of experimental techniques in biosciences makes it hard for institutions to include practical training for students in those fields.Difficulty often comes from lack of instrumentation in the teaching laboratories, limited economical resources, high student numbers, as well as safety concerns about handling some biological samples.Simulations and virtual laboratories offer a chance to supplement the on-site wet laboratory practicals as well as to offer students some experience with those experiments that are not feasible in the physical setting.It is hence significant for instructors to know about existing resources and to redesign their teaching plans to include virtual laboratories in the education process, in order to enhance students' learning and have them understand modern techniques even if they are not accessible in the physical facilities of the institution.A collection of free resources will be showcased, which means instructors anywhere in the world can access this approach.They are all used inside a web browser, without any requirements for other software, offered under a Creative Commons license.Topics include: chromatography (column chromatography of proteins, thin-layer chromatography for separating amino acids, lipids or pigments); electrophoretic analysis (proteins on cellulose acetate, SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of proteins, DNA on agarose gels); UV-VIS spectrophotometric assays; a full-featured molecular biology virtual laboratory (enzyme restriction, polymerase chain reaction and electrophoretic analysis, applied to genetic polymorphisms, forensic analyses, paternity test, foodstuff adulteration, viral infection by SARS-CoV2 or Influenza).These resources are being used over the last decade by numerous instructors with their students, both at high school, professional training and university courses.Groups of students going through the experience of the molecular biology lab range from 6 individuals to 300.Some of the instructors have repeatedly used it for 8 years.Reports from the instructors inform of high satisfaction, particularly in lower-income countries where the teaching institutions have very limited economic resources and cannot have access to advanced techniques and related instrumentation.The presentation is addressed mainly to instructors in science subjects, particularly biological and molecular sciences, at high school or university level, as well as postgraduates with a perspective to become instructors.