Labtime Tips

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During the Laboratory Experience

1. Outline the lab's safety hazards and explain how to handle crises that may arise.
2. Monitor each student's progress. Lab time is on-the-feet interactive instructional time, not teacher rest time. Ask probing questions of each student to reinforce the laboratory's concepts.
3. Nor is it "lab-partner rest time," either: Monitor students to make sure all participate. Some students may want to sit back and let others do all the work.
4. Encourage student questions and reflection on the lab.
5. Allow students to pursue a particular line of investigation further if it is not dangerous. For instance, if a student wants to cut a frog's head open to see its brain, encourage this even if it's not in the procedure. That is what inquiry is all about! However, see next point.
6. No unauthorized experiments! No one has free reign to pour chemicals together at random! There is no such thing as a "safe" chemical! (For example, see the MSDS for table salt.)

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