After opening the lesson, it’s time to get into the concept itself. The standard toolkit—a lecture, a textbook reading, or a wet lab—doesn’t always match what your students actually need to access the content. The LabXchange library opens up a few more paths: a strong visual to anchor a demonstration, a simulation to replace an inaccessible lab, and self-paced resources for students to work through on their own.
Let’s explore some common approaches to teaching core content, along with how to find and use the right LabXchange resource for each.
If the core concept of your lesson involves a full-class demonstration or explanation, displaying or walking through specific resources can provide engaging visual support to help students picture certain concepts and processes.
Search your content area and filter for Images or Interactives. Resources that illustrate a structure or animate a process step by step tend to make the most useful instructional aids.
One of LabXchange’s core goals is to provide comparable access to experiments and procedures in settings where resources are limited. If the heart of your lesson calls for wet lab work with tools, equipment, or materials that are costly or difficult to access, building your lesson around a LabXchange simulation can be an effective alternative, giving students more time and hands-on exposure to the core concept. Simulations are also a useful way to give absent students a comparable lab experience so they don’t fall behind while they’re away.
Filter for Simulations in your content area to find the best alternative for your lab. LabXchange simulations vary in focus, so it’s worth knowing what to look for when you’re searching:
Protocol-focused simulations let students interact with equipment and reagents to carry out an experiment step by step—making predictions, collecting data, and analyzing results as they go. The choices students make along the way affect their results, just as they would in a real lab.
Concept-focused simulations guide students through an experimental design and protocol with room to explore, checking their understanding at each step. Depending on the path they choose, different students may end up with slightly different experiences.
Experimental design simulations ask students to build their own experimental flow to answer a research question—a good fit for building scientific reasoning and familiarity with the method itself rather than a specific technique.
Spreadsheet simulations focus on data analysis and visualization, helping students extend their conceptual understanding once the experiment is complete.
These types aren’t set up as filters in the library, so search terms alone won’t reliably surface them. Instead, once you’ve filtered for Simulations in your content area, read through each result’s description. It will usually give you enough information about what students actually do in the simulation to judge which category it falls into and whether it’s the right fit.
Many LabXchange simulations come with complementary student-facing worksheets that guide students as they work through the resource independently, prompting their thinking and consolidating key concepts along the way. These worksheets are fully customizable, so you can make a copy and add to or adapt them as needed to support your lesson’s learning outcomes.
If a simulation has an accompanying worksheet, you’ll find it in the Resources block on the right-hand side of the simulation’s landing page.
Many LabXchange interactives and annotated videos include built-in scaffolding—visual supports, highlighted or bolded text, intentionally structured examples, and formative questions—making them well suited to independent, self-paced learning. If your core concept is one that students need time to wrestle with, assigning a resource for them to work through at their own pace can be an effective way to build that understanding.
Filter for Interactives or Annotated Videos featuring your core concept. Preview the resource to see whether the content and embedded questions are suitable for your learning goals. Look for interactives with embedded questions or related worksheets that encourage students to make connections and apply the concepts they are learning.
You can combine several resources together into a custom pathway, arrange them in the order you want students to follow, and share it with your class. Students can then work through the material at their own pace. There are 2 ways to customize a pathway:
Build your own: Select resources relevant to your lesson and arrange them in whatever order works best.
Copy and edit an existing one: Shorten it, reorder resources, or add your own material or annotations.
Because custom pathways can only be shared with users who have a LabXchange account, students need their own accounts to follow this approach.
For a full walkthrough, visit Creating and Editing a Pathway.
Once a concept has been taught, students need opportunities to reinforce it. In the next module, we'll look at giving students the varied, meaningful practice that helps a new idea take hold.
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