New to teaching biology? You may have no idea how to prepare and set up a lab activity. If so, this blog is for you. What follows is a step-by-step process for choosing, designing and preparing your classroom for a lab.
Lab Safety and Clean-Up
Make sure your students are well-versed in lab safety. (See this Biology Student Lab Safety Agreement from Carolina Biologicals)
Plan ahead on how you will deal with safety infractions, like horseplay.
Discuss lab clean up procedures and refreshing the lab for the next class (or taking the lab down after the last class is done).
Choose your lab wisely:
Remember – It is not how many labs you do, but the learning potential of the labs you choose.
Make sure that the lab is pertinent to the standards that you are required to teach by your district or school.
Ideally it should utilize the scientific process. For further information check out my blog on this.
Textbooks are good places to find labs, colleagues may be willing to share their favorite labs, or you can find labs on lesson plan websites like TPT.
Writing your own labs allows you to focus on the learning objectives that are most important for your students.
If you are a new biology teacher it can be a good idea to start small with simple labs and increase the complexity as you are ready.
Locate Materials Needed:
Once you have chosen a lab to do with your students, check to make sure you have the equipment and supplies to do this lab. If not, you may have to choose another lab.
Equipment and supplies may be in each classroom or in a central location for checkout. Ask a colleague for help, if you aren’t sure.
Will students perform the lab in groups or as individuals?
Usually, groups of 3-4 are used due to equipment/supply/space restraints, but a very simple lab could be performed individually.
Determine how many lab set-ups you need per class. Gather the equipment and supplies you will need for all the classes.
Look at the space you will be using, and determine how to place students and lab set ups. Are there lab tables or counters for the students? Desks that slant are not satisfactory for labs.
Assess the safety of the space for the number of students and their movements required during the lab. Make sure you have the proper safety equipment like goggles, chemical showers, fire-extinguishers, etc.
Do the lab yourself before lab day.
How long did it take?
Were there any glitches that need to be addressed?
This information will help you plan when to do the lab and how to fit it in to the class time. Remember that the students will take longer than you.
Allow enough time for instructions, to complete the lab, clean up, and for questions.
Ideally class time could be set aside for the lab report (especially the first time), but students could complete this at home.
Set up the lab:
Set up the lab and classroom after school before the day of the lab.
Prepare reagents and wet materials the day before and refrigerate if needed.
Plan to come in early the next day to complete last minute preparations.
Think about what equipment and supplies needs to be at each station, and what materials could be placed in common areas.
The day of the lab:
Take a few minutes to prepare your students for the lab by going over
the premise of the lab
instructions you want to emphasize
location of materials
remind students about lab safety protocol
After the lab:
Require the students to demonstrate that they understood the concept of the lab.
A little post-lab discussion is helpful.
Students should be assigned a lab report (or “write-up”). The basic elements of the scientific process should be parts of the lab report (Question/Problem, Background Information, Hypothesis, Materials, Procedure, Data, Analysis and Conclusion). See my resource on lab reports here.
Collect and grade the lab reports.
Lab reports can be a chore to grade, but this is one of the most valuable forms of feed-back the students can receive.
Labs provide so much insight into the science that you are teaching. It can seem intimidating at first. If you feel overwhelmed, start small and get some experience with set-ups and working with your students. After while it will become easier to know how to efficiently set up, perform and assess your students in the laboratory.
Here are a few of the labs I have in my store on TPT:
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