In my twelve years of being a chemistry student and chemistry teacher, I’ve had a heck of a lot of lab experience. My expertise runs from tie dyeing shirts as a high school chemistry student to study covalent bonds, all the way to using nanoparticles to make thin film solar cells in college. What I can say is that the expectations for lab reporting are all over the place. And in my opinion, many of us need to increase rigor in science, specifically in lab activities.
Go One Step Further
Of course, when kids are first learning, just following a lab procedure could be tough. Knowing all of the chemicals and equipment is a challenge itself. I consistently make the argument to go one step further. When making a recipe, double it for leftovers. When exercising, go those five more minutes (even though it really freaking sucks.) And finally, when teaching, push them just enough that they start to squirm.
As much as it is sometimes painful to make kids think (for both us and them) it’s important. If we only ask them to do what they are capable of, then why are they in your classroom in the first place? Aren’t they ALREADY capable of what you’re asking them to do? We NEED to push kids a bit – that’s literally our job as teachers.
Science Teachers Have it Tough
And for science teachers, that can be really hard. In some cases, you can ask the right questions and get kids to think one step ahead. But oftentimes we can’t. We are teaching scientific discoveries to kids. Discoveries made by experts with years of knowledge under their belts. Many of whom worked in labs and could test out their thoughts before finalizing them on paper.
I don’t’ know about you, but teaching dipole-dipole force and then trying to extract hydrogen-bonding from students’ brains is near impossible for me. But with the proper lab activity you can get them to see it. And with the right questions, you can get them to finalize their thoughts and observations on paper. Just like the “real” scientists.
And that’s why even when I didn’t have a chemistry lab or a bunch of chemicals and equipment, I still found a way to get 15 “chemical free” lab activities in front of my students.
Increase Rigor
That’s the magic word, right? Rigor? The reason our administration is constantly talking about the need to increase rigor in science is because it’s important. (Which I understand, is rare for admin to actually know what’s important.) This is the part where you can take kids from “repeaters” to “thinkers.” What I mean is, you can take kids from the level where they just learn facts and repeat them back to you and move them up. You can get them to have individual thoughts that aren’t parroted from you or their classmates. And that’s where you want them.
Increasing rigor in science comes down to two things. The first is getting them to see cool stuff that can expand their minds. The second is giving them the right questions to propel their thinking. The first part is easy. There are probably millions of labs and demos you can give to your science students. And if you’re in a situation like I was my first two years with no chemicals, YouTube is an amazing place for that.
Increase Rigor with Lab Reporting
Now, I know that you’re a very smart cookie. And I am too. But I know that you’re a teacher of some kind. That means you’re overworked, underpaid, stressed out and super busy. But because (hopefully) you love your job and the kids, you get up and go to work every day.
Coming up with just the right questions can be tough. Especially if you have a few classes at different levels. Some kids or classes will need deeper and tougher questions than another. This is why teaching is an art, not a science. You, of course, get better with your years of experience and increasing number of students taught.
But there’s a very simple solution. While yes, some specific questions on a topic can be great, general questions can be even better!
In my year-long chemistry lab book, I put a document called “How to Write a Chemistry Lab Report” in the very front. It’s maybe the best academic thing I’ve ever done for my students. This document outlines what each area of a lab report is for AND how to write it. But right now, I want to talk about written conclusion paragraphs.
Post Lab Questions vs. Written Conclusions
I don’t really think you need to have just one or the other. I’m a big fan of using both. In fact, many of my lab activities require kids to do both post lab questions and written conclusions. But if I had to pick one, it would be conclusions every time. I know that I’m not a genius, and writing post lab questions that fit every student can be tough.
Some of the super bright kids will breeze right through them, while the others may struggle. With written conclusions, yes they certainly take more time to grade, but it’s worth it.
I start by having kids synthesize what the lab activity was for and how they did it. This requires them to have a firm understanding of their experimental procedure and the purpose. This in itself is sometimes hard for some students to do. But this is critical to understanding the concepts taught in the lab activity. You put A LOT of time into planning these labs – don’t let it go to waste!
Then the kids are asked to summarize their results. And truthfully I don’t care what the results are. I make it very clear to my students that the point of science is to find the way to the right answers – not to get the right answers on the first try. That’s just a bonus! The students are asked to report if their results are valid or invalid and provide a reason why. This is the part I most heavily take into consideration for scoring their labs. This question alone can dramatically increase rigor in science with written conclusions.
Finally I ask the students to extend their knowledge. They are asked to make real life connections. I also allow them to connect the lab to other science concepts. Of course, they also discuss possible sources of error, new things they have learned and questions they still have.
What if it’s a Simple Lab Activity?
I’m SO on board for keeping things simple! I know that setting up, taking down and making up labs is such a headache for science teachers. When I was an intern for the science department at a high school, I was asked to set up or take down a few labs. I mostly did makeups since it always threw a wrench into a teacher’s day.
If you ask me, paper labs can be as good, if not better than the real “down and dirty” chemistry labs. I don’t think you need to wear goggles in every lab activity you do in order for them to be valid. I’m even on team “this lab doesn’t require measurements or calculations.” One of my favorite lab activities, Like Dissolves Like just has kids mix different chemicals with water to see if they’re polar or nonpolar. That’s just observational data!
But when the kids are asked to write a thorough conclusion paragraph which outlines their procedure and results and asks for some extension, you have instantly increased the rigor of that lab activity. It comes down to asking them to think, and then communicate those thoughts in a scientific way.
Beyond Science Class
If your students are college-bound, it’s almost guaranteed that they will need to take a lab science class. Having them write these conclusion paragraphs will certainly help them to feel prepared in that setting. Even outside of the lab science class, writing in science will build skills of writing, communicating, logical thinking and will prepare them for ANY course they take. Plus these skills are very important for the real world. Perhaps your students are going to the military, trade school or straight to a career. These skills are important, and oftentimes difficult to learn. Give them some practice! Increase the rigor of lab activities using a written conclusion.
