How to run a successful lab
Labs are overwhelming, overstimulating, chaotic, daunting, a lot of set up, and don’t always work. It’s no wonder why some teachers DON’T run labs very often. But, I can tell you that labs CAN be successful, smooth, & efficient.
First, come up with a standard form for your labs. Students should see every lab and recognize the format. I know this is difficult when you’re buying labs off of Teachers Pay Teachers and flying by the seat of your pants, but if you have the time I highly suggest formatting.
I’ve done this for a couple different reasons.
Consistency - Students like to know what is expected of them. They don’t like to guess. If the format is the same each time then they understand the flow of EVERY lab.
Grading for mastery - I break my labs up into different section to test for student mastery. Can they identify the variables and write a hypothesis? Can they collect data? Can they create a graph from their data? etc.
Now that you have a lab in hand and printed, how do you facilitate a lab successfully?
Every lab format should be the same so student’s know how to tackle the experimental problem. Like any good experiment, you’re just changing one variable!
Click the image for access to this COMPLETE introductory lab!
Day 1
Well, the first thing is probably familiar - read through the lab. I know a lot of teachers rely heavily on students reading through the lab on their own, but I find there is less confusion if I walk through the procedure with my classes. Also, there are always tips, tricks, and safety protocols to cover with your class (DON’T FORGET THE SAFETY PROTOCOLS!!), so if you’re going to spend the time going over those items then covering the procedure isn’t much more time at the beginning of class.
Once I’ve answered questioned and clarified steps, my students get to work on their lab - at their desk. They don’t get access to the lab and their materials until they have identified variables and come up with a hypothesis with their lab partner. Once they’ve finished this part, they come up to me and I sign off or I send them back to make adjustments. It’s real-time feedback!
I will admit this part can become kind of a bottleneck, but I plan my labs around it. I think students checking in with me before their lab is imperative because I know once students are back in the lab, they’ve all “passed” the variable and hypothesis section. PLUS, I’m grading in real-time; when I come back to their labs I just have to plug in their scores because I’ve graded the first portion of their lab in class.
Another benefit of this method is it allows for natural differentiation. In any class, but especially in the sciences, some students fly through material and want to get going. This allows them to be the first ones checked, signed-off, and into the lab. They are probably the students that won’t have a lot of questions during the lab so while you’re still checking variables, these first students should be okay working. Remember to park yourself at your front middle table so you are a little above yourself to monitor all students.
Some of your lower students might need the rest of the hour to work with you to get their variables and hypothesis completed. Other students may have gotten started on the lab, and your high fliers may have finished the lab procedure. All of this is OKAY. Don’t stress that all of your students are in different places; they should be based on their abilities and the check-in you set up with the variables. There are some benefits to your students being in different places:
Supplies are easier for students to access when everyone doesn’t need them at the same time and you can monitor and replenish as you go.
Students can help each other out more. If you answer a question on step 3 for a group and another group has a similar question later then the groups can pass along the information.
Drawbacks:
Labs can be difficult to set up. Some supplies need to be chilled or hot and it can be a lot for one day of setup - let alone two.
Labs are messy. You have to be okay with having chaos and a mess for more than one day.
Early finishers. Again, some students will finish way ahead of other students. You can let them finish out the post lab assignment, let them work on assignments for other classes, or encourage them back into the lab as assistants.
Day 2
Start the second day much like the first - go over expectations for everyone. If there are still students in the lab, highlight safety protocol and tips that were learned by other students the first day. Then, talk about what comes NEXT.
What should students do with the data? Where are the post lab questions? Where are the guidelines for writing a good conclusion? Where should everything get turned in? Spend about 5-10 minutes at the beginning of class going over these items briefly. The more labs you have in class and utilizing a standard lab format will shorten this period of time as the year progresses.
Also, put a to-do list on the board! This can be in a step by step format or a flowchart but there should be something VISUAL for students to see as they are moving through the lab and post lab material.
