To keep up the good practice of providing hands-on experience while we are staring at screens in Zoom meetings and Canvas all day, the STEM division has distributed lab kits again for several Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Engineering courses. The students and faculty alike benefit from this practice and try to keep the instructions as close to face-to-face learning as possible.
Over that last week the STEM lab coordinators Gary Cheang, Mousa Ghanma, and Marco Wehrfritz were able to distribute almost 600 lab kits in three days for a total of 11 different classes.
This time we were able to smooth the process and implemented the lessons learned from the past. The bookstore team, especially Kevin Chak, were a big help again in this endeavor. They were able to give us access to their scheduling system, which allowed the students to set up appointments to pick up their lab kits very easily. The pick-up happened on a drive through base but this time at building 7, which was logistically a huge improvement. The run was occasionally so big, that there was some congestion, but eventually everyone got served and was able to leave with their precious equipment.
A large part of the lab kits was thoroughly assembled at Skyline College. Most of the Physics kits were retrieved from the Fall semester and over the winter break checked for missing or broken parts, restocked and repacked to be handed out again in Spring. The Biology 215 and 230 kits were also made in-house and thoroughly assembled over several weeks to be ready for Spring. Some vital parts were indeed vital, like water plants, which could only be put in right before distribution to keep them alive. To handle this situation, a thorough time management strategy was set up by Lab Coordinator Gary Cheang.
On a side note: the bookstore was shipping more than 100 lab kits for Physics 210 and 106 for us! A big thank you for that!
And a special thanks for helping us out goes to Nadia Tariq and our two student assistants Sabrina Locsin and Kyar Loo and of course our Dean Carla Grandy, who managed again to make the funds for all this available.
Article by Marco Wehrfritz
Photo by Gary Cheang