gms | German Medical Science

For teacher and students, laboratory courses are often associated with hassles, difficulties, and inefficiency. Aside from being more expensive than theoretical courses, transferring laboratory knowledge from teacher to student, e.g. manipulating biological cells and synthesizing chemical compounds, is a uniquely challenging and time-consuming process. Relying on uncontrollable factors – like a teacher’s ability to demonstrate techniques effectively and memorably, or a student’s readiness to absorb such details at a specific time and place – unfortunately, makes teaching laboratory courses especially difficult and expensive. To address this challenge, JoVE, the Journal of Visualized Experiments, has produced a collection of videos demonstrating fundamental laboratory experiments used in the biological sciences. The videos are tailored for undergraduate educators and students, as well as for those in advanced high school courses. Among the basic techniques, JoVE explores DNA gel electrophoresis, the growth of bacterial cultures, centrifugation, molecular cloning, and experimentation in model organisms like C. elegans and Drosophila by recreating such protocols on video. In addition, each technique is supplemented by five articles, also presented on video, by scientists from top research institutions as they apply the technique in real-world scenarios. This collection creates a new, effective tool for systematic teaching in laboratory courses that saves teachers time and resources and expedites the learning process for their students. This presentation will be of interest to educators and institutional librarians that are tasked with providing new tools for their faculty and students.