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The ‘Tea Test’ - A mobile phone based spectrophotometer protocol to introduce biochemical methods independent of the laboratory

Hubbard, Katharine; Birycka, Marlena; Britton, Maisie-Elizabeth; Coates, Joseph; Coxon, Isla; Jackson, Chloe; Nicholas, Casper; Priestley, Tyler; Robins, JJ; Ryczko, Paula; Sailsbury, Talia; Shand, Megan; Snodin, George; Worsley, Beth

Authors

Profile image of Katharine Hubbard

Dr Katharine Hubbard K.Hubbard@hull.ac.uk
Reader in Biology Education, Director of Education School of Natural Sciences

Marlena Birycka

Maisie-Elizabeth Britton

Joseph Coates

Isla Coxon

Chloe Jackson

Casper Nicholas

Tyler Priestley

JJ Robins

Paula Ryczko

Talia Sailsbury

Megan Shand

George Snodin

Beth Worsley



Abstract

Providing hands-on practical education without access to laboratories during the Covid-19 pandemic has required creativity and innovation. In this paper, co-authored by academic staff and students, we describe an at-home mobile phone based ‘spectrophotometer’ experiment used in an introductory undergraduate biology course. Using colour picker apps, a smartphone can be used to quantify concentration, which we used to compare the strengths of different brands of tea. The protocol is designed to be low-cost and safe to perform outside of a laboratory. It teaches students important biochemical methods such as preparing dilutions, constructing calibration curves, normalising data and testing a hypothesis. We reflect on the experience of developing and using the protocol from a staff and student perspective, which highlights the advantages of this approach in terms of student independence and inclusivity. We also suggest alternative experiments that could be performed using the protocol. We encourage biology educators to think creatively about the possibilities for using mobile phones or at-home experiments in their teaching. Our experience suggests that at-home experiments like this protocol will have value even after the pandemic is over, particularly in terms of inclusivity.

Citation

Hubbard, K., Birycka, M., Britton, M.-E., Coates, J., Coxon, I., Jackson, C., Nicholas, C., Priestley, T., Robins, J., Ryczko, P., Sailsbury, T., Shand, M., Snodin, G., & Worsley, B. (in press). The ‘Tea Test’ - A mobile phone based spectrophotometer protocol to introduce biochemical methods independent of the laboratory. Journal of Biological Education, https://doi.org/10.1080/00219266.2022.2072934

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Mar 31, 2022
Online Publication Date May 21, 2022
Deposit Date May 13, 2022
Publicly Available Date May 23, 2022
Journal Journal of Biological Education
Print ISSN 0021-9266
Publisher Routledge
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/00219266.2022.2072934
Keywords Mobile phone; Smartphone; Spectrophotometer; Biochemistry; Inclusivity; COVID-19; Student partnership
Public URL https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/3994053

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Publisher Licence URL
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Copyright Statement
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.





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