I taught the research methods lab during Fall 2021 and Spring 2022. I had two sections each semester, with around 20 to 25 students in each class. I was the only instructor for these two sections, though there were several other graduate students also teaching this course.
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I was given a standardized curriculum, but was able to modify the materials to tailor them for my teaching methods. The course had been added only a couple of years prior to the first semester that I taught, so I was able to give input to the curriculum as it was modified in real time.
Course Overview
The primary goal of this one credit hour class was to create a learning environment where students of all ages and experience levels could get hands-on experience designing and running experiments, collecting and analyzing data, and writing and verbalizing the outcomes. The students spent the majority of each class in small groups working on their experiments, which also familiarizes them with the types of peer collaboration that are crucial for science.
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The class was designed as part of the university's oral communication requirement, so many of the assignments included recording mini presentations of their experiments, culminating in a longer, more formal, presentation at the end of the semester.