I am a big fan of the idea of Open Education principles. In academia I learned that most knowledge is kept behind paywalls in pay-to-read journals, making knowledge widely unavailable to the public. Since learning that, I have become a huge proponent of Open Access academic materials so that the public can have access to the best possible sources to inform their lives and knowledge base. In a similar way, the idea of educational resources being trapped behind paywalls so that not all educators can access them seems foolish. I am so excited to learn that there is a movement existing to make these resources open and free to access to better benefit all learners.
Image by Photo by Ousa Chea on Unsplash.
I looked into the Open Education Commons, and I was impressed with the different search fields you can use to find content in the appropriate grade level/subject/activity type. I looked at some Life Science labs for high school, and I was returned 162 results. I looked closer at the first result, which was called Greenhouse Effect Lab by Krista Larsen from Carleton College. The resource could have been more detailed in how it described the carry-out of the lab, but it definitely would serve as an excellent starting point for a new teacher developing their own collection of labs.
Overall, I think that OER is a resource I will definitely use more as a new teacher searching for activities to do in my classroom, especially for thinking of science labs!