DryLabs: A cross-institution community collaboration to deliver chemistry practical teaching in higher education during the Covid-19 pandemic
About DryLabs
The DryLabs initiative began in April 2020 as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic as it became clear that uncertainties regarding social distancing and international travel restrictions posed significant challenges to the delivery of lab-based practical teaching. Spearheaded by Malcolm Stewart, Craig Campbell and Ben Challen at the University of Oxford, fortnightly meetings have brought together members of the Chemistry higher education community. The network has a particular focus on developing online "dry" material to teach practical chemistry remotely to university students and reorganising labs to allow safe teaching with social distancing. The meetings have allowed practitioners from across the world to share ideas and innovate.
Our objectives
- Bring chemistry educators together, and develop a broad scientific community
- Create a repository of fully developed, implementable teaching materials from the community
- Forge new collaboration for innovation and development of new ideas
- Tackle the challenges of teaching in the current climate - and beyond
- Understand the full impact, purpose and value of lab-based teaching
Our meetings
DryLabs meetings are held on Zoom on Fridays once a fortnight. As well as ideas being shared via presentations, breakout rooms allow participants to focus on specific discussion topics and collaboration projects.
Join the DryLabs network
The DryLabs network is open to anyone who teaches Chemistry in Higher Education, and anyone else who has a scholarly interest in this field. Sign up to our network to access our resources and join our future meetings.
DryLabs Resources
- Collaborative resources and full bank of recordings (Available to network members only - join DryLabs to receive the password and gain access)
