Education

The Lens of Experience: Contextualizing STEM Concepts with Videos

Ellen Ovenden, MSc | Sep 05, 2025

Ellen Ovenden, MSc | Sep 05 2025

I remember my first-year life sciences labs well. The benches were full, timers were buzzing, and a handful of instructors moved around from group to group, frequently looking just as overwhelmed as we did. I left some sessions feeling like I’d just managed to follow the steps, never mind see how the technique applied to a real problem or why it mattered outside the room.

The gap between procedure and purpose is exactly what hands-on learning tries to close in STEM, within the limits faculty and learners face: large classes, limited time and materials, and varying levels of student preparedness.

Why Learning by Doing Sticks

Experiential learning asks students to do more than absorb information. It invites them to apply ideas, test outcomes, and reflect on results. When learners engage in this way, they build motivation, strengthen critical thinking, and retain concepts more effectively.^1,2

Effective experiential tasks share four traits: students participate actively, the work connects to a real or realistic context, there is structured reflection, and there are chances to improve through iteration. These principles may seem obvious in field-based subjects like ecology or geology, but they can also frame abstract domains in ways that make knowledge feel applicable, such as using thought experiments in physics or roleplaying in psychology.

In a recent JoVE webinar on experiential learning in STEM, Alice Pistono (MSc), Director of Brand and PR, explained why this approach is gaining traction among faculty. The aim, she emphasized, is not complex activities for their own sake, but relevant context and room for students to think and act. When learners see how a concept operates beyond the textbook, engagement increases and understanding deepens.

How Visuals Help

Video and other visuals aren’t a substitute for lab work; they are a force multiplier. They make scarce experiences repeatable, reduce setup time, and provide a consistent reference students can revisit, reducing repeated explanations in class. Videos can:

🔷 Simulate real settings when equipment, space, or materials are limited.
🔷 Demonstrate real techniques with correct sequencing, posture, and safety.
🔷 Prepare for fieldwork, orienting students to sites, tools, and procedures.
🔷 Build career readiness by showing industry workflows and documentation norms.
🔷 Enhance the ability to tackle real-life scenarios through repeatable exposure.

Practical Classroom Approaches

In the webinar session, we discussed several ways experiential learning can be integrated using videos. Let’s expand on these by providing more examples.

1. Simulations

Provide a structured situation with rules, limits, and information, and have students choose a course of action and explain it.

💡 In action: Students watch a short video on how pathogens spread in different environments, then adjust simple spreadsheet variables to see how the outcomes compare.

2. Roleplaying

Give students different roles so they can practice seeing a problem from multiple perspectives.

💡 In action: After watching a video showing a CRISPR technique, students roleplay a research team and an ethics committee, debating how and when the method should be applied.

3. Live demonstrations

Demonstrate a technique or phenomenon with planned decision points where students predict, explain, and answer interactive prompts.

💡 In action: Show a video of precise pipetting techniques. Pause to ask students to identify common errors, then have them practice in pairs with the clip as a reference.

4. Collaborative problem solving

Pose a challenge that requires teamwork: something with complex data, unclear steps, or more than one possible answer.

💡 In action: Assign a video walkthrough of enzyme assays. In class, teams design a plan to compare two inhibitors, then peer review each other’s proposals while referring back to the video.

5. Hybrid/online solutions

Use a flipped model to protect scarce in-person time for higher-order work like debate and discussion.

💡 In action: Students prepare by watching a circuit-assembly video. In the lab, they troubleshoot pre-wired boards and document fixes, using the video as a guide when stuck.

Moving Forward

Experiential learning works best when it is both practical for faculty and meaningful for students. Videos make this easier by creating shared references, accelerating technique acquisition, and allowing class time to focus on decision making, discussion, and problem solving.

One success story highlighted in the webinar comes from the University of Pavia, where Dr. Gian Battista Parigi, Professor of Pediatric Surgery, faced the challenge of preparing students for clinical skills in a blended setting. By integrating video resources into group activities, his students reported an overwhelmingly positive response. They gained confidence before entering examination rooms and showed higher engagement during practice. Faculty also found the approach valuable, since students arrived more prepared and ready to learn.

These are exactly the outcomes many STEM instructors hope for: students who are not only retaining knowledge, but also ready to apply it with confidence. The path forward doesn’t have to be complicated. Starting with short videos, structured reflection, and small-scale experiential tasks can begin to shift learning in ways that matter.

Look out for future webinars focused on experiential learning in different disciplines!

Explore experiential approaches for your own teaching and request a JoVE video playlist aligned with your syllabus.

Request my playlist

Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Prentice Hall.
Kuh, G. D. (2008). High-impact educational practices: What they are, who has access to them, and why they matter. Association of American Colleges and Universities.