Lab Practicals
To facilitate student "ownership" over their learning of lab skills and data analysis techniques, once a quarter there is a LAB PRACTICAL. During the practical, students rotate between lab stations and are asked to complete a task at each station. The tasks are based on the lab work completed throughout the quarter. Students are able to use their lab notebook during the practical. Sometimes the questions require that students have the work completed in their lab book (for example, "what is the answer to question 7 on the surface area to volume lab?") other times the question is a new scenario from which students must transfer information from a lab we did in class to a new situation. There are also "hands on" skill questions, such as measuring with accuracy and precision or focusing a microscope.
At SHS, the number of IB Biology students really limits the ability of a single teacher to provide detailed, individualized feedback on lab work. Instead, students are given credit for participation and completion of lab work throughout the quarter and feedback is given on a whole class basis. Students are given opportunity to improve or change the work in their lab notebooks prior to the lab practical. Then, the quarterly lab practical serves as a summative assessment of the lab skills, procedures and applications.
Since implementing the lab practical in class, I have found that students actually put MORE thought and effort into the work being completed in their lab notebook. There is motivation for students to be organized so information can easily be found and understood during the lab practical. Additionally, students are motivated to incorporate the feedback provided during lab debriefs into their work.
At SHS, the number of IB Biology students really limits the ability of a single teacher to provide detailed, individualized feedback on lab work. Instead, students are given credit for participation and completion of lab work throughout the quarter and feedback is given on a whole class basis. Students are given opportunity to improve or change the work in their lab notebooks prior to the lab practical. Then, the quarterly lab practical serves as a summative assessment of the lab skills, procedures and applications.
Since implementing the lab practical in class, I have found that students actually put MORE thought and effort into the work being completed in their lab notebook. There is motivation for students to be organized so information can easily be found and understood during the lab practical. Additionally, students are motivated to incorporate the feedback provided during lab debriefs into their work.
"The most challenging activity in class for me was always lab practicals. This was usually because it tested not only my understanding of our labs but one of my greatest weaknesses, my ability to keep track of my time and pace myself accordingly. I overcame this challenge by organizing my lab notebook in a more effective way so that I could find the information I was looking for more easily. I also started to be much more detailed in my note taking on the concepts for the lab, including images/drawing when necessary (i.e. phases of mitosis) so that when I reached difficult questions I could look to my notes to help me come to an answer more quickly. Taking this extra time to make my lab notebook a more valuable resource helped me understand the material more and therefore I also performed better on other unit quizzes and quarter tests."
K.J. (class of 2018)
"I really struggled with the lab practical in the first quarter. I prepared for the next practical by taking the time to actually annotate my labs with extra information, make the information in the book organized and easy to interpret quickly and update my table of contents."
M.A. (class of 2018)