Now, assuming you’re going to have to drag yourself out of bed to be on campus for 8:30 AM either way, why would you take a lab over classes at that early slot? Well, logic suggests that at an earlier hour, you are more likely to be tired and unfocused on your task at hand. You might be inclined to think this suggests that morning labs are a bad idea waiting to happen then—and I would argue that your inclination is wrong.
In any sort of engineering program, it is only to be expected that you will have a very heavy course load, and a very busy weekly schedule for both lectures and labs. And, as an engineering student, it is expected that you not only attend all of these, but that you are properly participating in these scheduled events, thus getting the proper and expected experience from the class or lab.
So what benefit is there to dragging yourself to the lab rather than the classroom at 8:30 AM? Because of the fundamental difference between laboratory learning and classroom learning—laboratories are an active form of learning, whereas classes are a passive form. Labs require you to think, perform, and participate in order to complete. A lecture will continue without hesitation, no input needed from you, the student. While this might make morning lectures sound like a far more tempting option for 8:30 AM commitments (“Awesome, I can just sit in class and try not to fall asleep!”), they are also a far less efficient option.
To relate to another aspect of our lives, it is very akin to other aspects of our life that have ‘easier’ options—say, choosing wake up or staying in bed for an extra 40 minutes in the morning. Yes, the latter option is much easier to do, but it also has less reward. What is gained by staying in bed for an extra 40 minutes? Some additional sleep, yes, but likely still not enough sleep for your taste. All that you did was delaying the same inevitable task of waking up, and lost time that could have been spent getting exercise, or doing some additional work, or literally anything else that requires consciousness in order to perform.
In the same regard, having a morning lab not only is benefited by being attentive, but in fact requires that you be attentive in order to succeed. You cannot snooze your way though wiring a amplifier, or be half awake when performing a chemical purification in a lab the same way you can snooze through a proof in your calculus lecture. Even if you were up way later than you should have been the night before marathoning Game of Thrones, or playing too much Super Smash Bros., you have no choice but to put your fullest effort into the laboratory. The risk of doing poorly during a lab also has far greater pressure than simply dozing off in the middle of your chemistry lecture, and so you might re-think your next 4 AM visit to the realm of distractions.
In the same regard, since lectures are such a passive method of learning, morning classes have the risk of being far less efficient at conveying information than the alternative (that is, presumably, afternoon or evening classes). If a student is sleepy or otherwise inattentive when a lecture is taking place, they run the risk of missing out on crucial information about the course explained by the professor, either verbally or visually. The scientifically unsubstantiated, but still popular, quote about how we learn only 50% of what we see and hear, but 80% of what we experience already suggests that classes are less efficient at teaching simply due to how the majority of the population is inefficient at retaining information. Coupling this inefficiency with the risk of being sleepy during the morning class does not seem like the best option for getting the most out of your tuition, and out of your precious time.
Having morning labs might appear to be a less pleasant option at first glance, but there is definitely a clear benefit to having them over classes. Much like eating your vegetables and getting your daily exercise, it is an option that rewards your lifestyle choices, and should overall have a positive impact on your lifestyle as a student.
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