Getting Science Students Out of the Classroom and into the Lab
September 23, 2009
Many of us recall the formaldehyde stench of school science labs, where as students we spent hours dissecting frogs and writing up lab reports stained with mysterious fluids.
Today, the quality of students' science education still relies largely on the initiative of teachers"and some are finding innovative ways to get kids excited about learning science.
"If kids are going to understand how real science works, they need to do real inquiry," says NancyLee Bergey, a 29-year science teacher and associate director of teacher education at University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education. In recent years, education experts have recognized that hands-on lab work is not enough"the work must also be inquiry based. "That means identifying a problem, and then thinking of all the ways you might investigate that problem."
So, in fourth-grade units on plant growth, Bergey's students designed their own experiments to examine a plant's needs: Various groups raised five plants on different amounts of water, sunlight or other factors, then took measurements and reported back. That same theory of inquiry-based learning translated in fifth grade to student-designed experiments with stream tables"trays with soil and flowing water that demonstrate principles of geology. And in eighth grade, it formed the basis for engineering projects with LEGO robotics, which had kids writing computer code and building robots complete with motors and sensors.
Jason Crean, a science teacher at Lyons Township High School in La Grange, Illinois, now starts each year of biology with an inquiry-based task for his students: "We give them mimosa plants"also called touch-me-nots. I ask the kids to take measurements and collect data, but when they touch them they close up. So they design their own experiments. It's basic, but these little plants that move get kids excited about science."
Crean says that, given how savvy his students are, if an experiment is irrelevant they'll pick up on it and lose interest. While working at the conservation genetics lab at Brookfield (Illinois) Zoo, he came up with the idea of using data from the lab to teach genetics: Students designed dolphin paternity tests, took research trips to the zoo, and some even began volunteering at the lab. Crean also created a live animal lab at his school to teach species classification, evolution, and adaptation. And, through a chinchilla breeding program, students practice predicting genetic outcomes.
A major advantage of hands-on work, or demonstrations, is that it can appeal to a variety of learning modalities: visual, verbal, and kinesthetic.
Plus, says Peggy Deichstetter, a 40-year biology teacher at St. Edward Central Catholic High School in Elgin, Illinois, it keeps students thinking actively about science. In a food science unit, they cultured bacteria from hamburgers cooked to different temperatures"an eye-opening experience for some. She has taken students on canoe trips to collect water samples, on nighttime hikes to monitor nocturnal wildlife, and on two-week trips to a marine biology lab in Hawaii.
Whether her students are splicing genes under a microscope or doing virtual genetic experiments with fruit flies, Deichstetter says, "I just don't believe in lecture alone. It's a matter of getting kids involved rather than talking at them. Their involvement in their education is what gets them excited about science."
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