Enhancing STEM Education for the Online Environment

Innovative strategies for communicating science are necessary in the current global environment where many institutions are seeing an increased need to address educational needs through online platforms. Traditionally, many sk ills within STEM disciplines have been reinforced using a hands-on, applied approach in the laboratory setting. Recent worl dwide events forcing many in STEM fields to transition to online environments present an opportunity to tak e advantage of rich data sets and available online tools to enhance learning and scientific curriculum. Strategies and best practices are emphasized here to assist science educators with the transition to the hybrid, blended, or virtual classroom and aid in the preparation of science teachers who must be ready to teach in a multitude of platforms [1, 2]. Several examples within the biological sciences are used to contrast a more traditional approach with virtual counterparts to demonstrate how these resources can improve learning and cognition.