Can the Online Environment Move the Undergraduate Laboratory from a Square Dance to a Tango?
Devon A. Cancilla, Scientific Technical Services, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA Simon P. Albon, Department of Pharmaceutical Science, University of British Columbia, BC, Canada Tango has been described as the dance of discovery, emotion, and passion. Because of the complex interaction of dancers that is formalized in its approach but free in its movement, it has been said that to dance tango is to understand life itself. In contrast, consider the square dance: square dancers move at the orchestrated commands of a caller, intent on a single task which is completed when all of the dancers have finished a predetermined pattern. Most science teaching labs today are square dances, moving masses of students through a series of orchestrated activities with the single intent of reaching predetermined experimental outcomes. If we are to engage students in science, we need to convey the excitement of discovery – that is, the emotion and passion of science – as well as the orderli
