I know the title: Plan labs BEFORE the school year begins?! I’m the biggest proponent of NOT thinking about school over the summer. We’re not getting paid so, DO NOT work!
But this is maybe an exception… Every school I’ve ever worked at had some kind of “Teacher Welcome” day for me to squeeze in the tiniest amount of my own work before the kids came back. You know, that day of PD and meetings that seem far less important than printing copies for your first few days of school… Well THIS is the task I think you should take up on that day. Plan labs before the school year begins.
I know it sounds like SUCH a pain, but here’s the deal: Planning labs before the school year begins will save you SO MUCH time, and probably money too!
Budgeting for your labs
If you have an idea of the labs that you want to do, and what materials they require, you’ll know how to spend the science budget and how to prepare yourself. For the last three or four years of teaching, I had an “allowance” from the science department. (They divided our budget by the number of teachers in the department.)
The way school budgets work is that you have to spend all the money. Otherwise you won’t get that same amount the following year. The finance office will assume you can run on the lower amount. You may also have a pretty strict timeline on when this money must be spent. For all of my years, this money had to be spent by the end of October. If you know what labs you want to do, you’ll know to make sure you have enough of everything in the stock room.
If your science budget is super small (or non-existent) you may be able to simply ask the school’s finance person for a small amount of spending money. Or maybe a reimbursement for money you spend. ALWAYS check the reimbursement rules before going out of pocket. You’d hate to expect one and not get it. My suggestion is to check out my “Chemical Free” labs instead. These are a great way to include some basic grocery store/pharmacy items that are super cheap but can still teach chemistry.
Easy to Collaborate
When you plan labs before the school year begins, it is also much easier to coordinate with the other science teachers in your school. It is rare for a science teacher to have all their own chemicals and supplies. We all share! So when you know that you’re going to need 5 gallons of hydrogen peroxide hair developer for your elephant’s toothpaste lab, BUT someone else does too, you can properly prepare. You can spend that science budget when it is given instead of reaching into your own wallet when supplies are low. I understand that this requires you to work with other people… That can be hard. Especially if they don’t have the same priorities as you.
I recommend YOU find what you need, check the supply closet, and then confer with the other science teachers on whether or not the supply is enough for you and whatever they will need. Anything that seems like a “maybe” or a “not sure” is probably worth spending department money on. You could always use it next year if they don’t.
Most of the people I have worked with have more or less given me their allowances for spending. They have what they want, it’s more or less set in stone, or they will worry about it when the time comes. Which is often too late. What can I say, it sucks to not be prepared, but they did it to themselves!
Student Safety
If you planned the labs out before the school year began, you can actually provide a list to students of the chemicals they will be using. Well not really. They won’t know what they’re really looking at. The Flinn Scientific safety contract has students indicate allergies, plus I’m sure you have this information somewhere in your school’s database. If you skim through that quickly, you will find that most of your chemistry labs are probably totally fine for your students. If you know one kid has really bad eczema, then you’ll know to put that kid in gloves for your acid/base labs and the elephant’s toothpaste lab. Then you can be prepared and make sure you have gloves for that kid ahead of time.
This also comes to your knucklehead students that are going to try their own experiments. I’ve had a few of these kids over the years. I make sure to sort of sequence my labs, the best I can for increasing danger. If the kids can handle the easier and safer stuff, you are slowly building trust. I work my way from some gentle measurement labs up to flame test over six to eight weeks.
Lab Planning
Aside from just having the supplies, you can mentally prepare yourself for what is upcoming. Like I mentioned, I know that I LOVE using the flame test lab each year for the atomic theory unit. Knowing that this is coming up for my students, I know to give them a Bunsen burner training lesson beforehand. You can make sure to line up the lab skills so you can make sure students have prerequisite skills.
It’s critical to plan labs before the school year begins so that you can account for all of these things. Spend less, collaborate more, account for safety and strategically add in lab skills lessening the amount of reteaching.
Grab my year long lab book here. Have all the guesswork taken out and have your labs planned from now until May! And grab my free chemistry curriculum outline! This will give you a great idea of what labs I use each year and what you can use. You can also swap in some labs of your own and get an idea of the timeline!
