Hi -

In the Zoom I had last Friday with other professors who teach genetics, we all have some version from our administration that we will start face to face in fall 2020.  One idea we talked about was 'front-loading labs.'

In spring 2020, I was the sabbatical replacement for my colleague who teaches cell and molecular biology.  I did the labs.  He had it set up in what I would call a front-loaded fashion, students do five labs with so much hands on experience - from pipetting, gel loading, making solutions, using the spectrophotometers, gathering data, graphing.  Then, the last weeks of lab were on an independent cloning project - we did one week of the cloning project and shut down from COVID19.  So, the students got tons of lab experience even with the lack of hands on labs after early March.

I'd like to think more about how I could manage this kind of front-loaded lab for fall.  Of course, I don't know for sure that we will come back to campus in August as planned, but it seems at least reasonable now to expect we might get some time face to face.

Very interested to hear your thoughts!!!!  Cheers - Robyn Puffenbarger, Bridgewater College