Setting up Procedures and Expectations for Successful Middle School Science Activities
I’ll be honest, conducting labs and other science activities with my middle schoolers use to scare me! I approached the entire endeavor with a heavy-handed list of consequences for any misbehaving and spent the entire day in a mild state of panic. Because, let’s be honest, middle school students are in a class to themselves- one minute mature and thoughtful, the next playful and impulsive. I love this age group, but I was also handing them scalpels. I don’t think any of us enjoyed the experience as much as we should have and ultimately, I do want to inspire joy and passion when exploring science phenomena. So, over time I moved from a reactive approach to a proactive one. I introduced systems of procedures and guidelines for our classroom that applied all the time, not just for labs.
When I first started teaching, I followed the practice of requiring that students pass a lab safety quiz prior to participating in labs. The quizzes were often pretty lengthy and tedious for me, not just because I had to grade them all, but because I had to constantly re-teach and re-test those that did not pass. Eventually, I needed them all to pass (and not everyone performs well on tests of any kind).
This approach seemed a bit much to me. Afterall, middle school science labs aren’t quite the same as high school labs, were everything from the setup to the equipment is different and science safety quizzes may make a lot of sense. In middle school science, our labs and science activities generally use household items and while safety is always a must, my goal was to have my students use basic, sound science practices that would be applicable all the time, so we could be practicing them all the time. I took what I knew to be standard lab safety practices along with sound classroom management practices and general classroom rules and created 5 basic science classroom guidelines we could use every day in the science classroom. Here’s a look at what I came up with…
Guideline 1: Always treat yourself, others, and the materials with respect.
This guideline covers several things. First, it covers how we treat each other as we work together in collaborative groups, including the way we talk with each other. But it also covers being respectful to ourselves by doing our best on assignments, participating, and keeping up on our work. And I include materials here as well, and emphasize the need to treat everything with care since they are communal items and sometimes expensive. My goal is to instill in my students a sense of ownership in the classroom as a whole.
Guideline 2: Touch only with permission and understanding.
First and foremost, I use this guideline to remind students that as excited as they might be to find a microscope or other equipment on their group table when they enter, they shouldn’t touch it right away. It’s a terrible temptation that is so hard for so many of them to avoid. By stating it as a guideline and practicing it with everything, even our most basic tools like markers and scissors, students form a habit of waiting to get clear instructions before starting anything. I added “understanding” to emphasize that I wanted my students to ask for help if they were unsure about anything. When it comes to handling the equipment like microscopes or dissection tools, I’d much rather have them ask and ask again, then embark on their own.
Guideline 3: Follow directions carefully.
I will usually ask my students to read each step of a given set of directions carefully, and read again before proceeding. I usually also have the directions projected, as well as available at their tables (with visuals whenever possible), and I read and demonstrate each step as we go, so as to capture all learning modalities.
Rule 4: Use all your senses… except taste.
This guideline is really about encouraging scientific observation and study. With every lab and activity we do, I want my students to use all of their observational skills to collect data and explore the phenomena. I state “except taste” specifically because so much of what we experiment with involves items that students might find in their kitchen at home (sugar, vinegar, baking soda) but I want them to distinguish “science materials” from “foods.” That being said, there are many activities I do with my students where I allow and encourage students to taste test or eat their creations. In these cases, I make sure to store and handle my edible items separate from my “science materials” and I communicate this with my students.
Rule 5: Keep food, liquid, and gum away from the work area.
This guideline comes from my days working in professional lab settings where we were required to leave all such items, even water bottles, outside the lab. We actually had a table just outside the door where everyone kept their stuff so they could step outside, grab a sip of coffee or water, then head back to work. I’ve worked at several different school sites with varying degrees of school wide rules about what is and is not allowed in the classroom, but I’ve always kept this guideline for my own classroom regardless. In science, this rule matters because we don’t want cross-contamination. Even something like a small spill from a water bottle could change your data, and things like heavily powdered chips, juice, or gum could prove disastrous for an experiment or equipment. So, in the science classroom, we keep them put away. The guideline allows for some variations depending on your preferences. For instance, this could be only for the work area during a lab. But, I have found that making exceptions is a slippery slope and it’s been easiest to simply say that in the science classroom, this is a best practice we follow.
How I teach the guidelines…
I’m a pretty big believer in the idea that students need to be taught procedures, just the same as teaching cells or atoms. Because of this, I have a simple lesson I go through with my students to introduce, practice, and teach these guidelines. I spend 1-2 days on the lesson but it’s worth the outcome. We go over the guidelines and talk about what this would look like and sound like in the classroom (we even have a worksheet to complete). Then I ask student groups to complete a choice project demonstrating the use of at least 1 guideline. They can create a poster, perform a short skit, or even create a PSA (public service announcement). As they complete their project, they practice the guidelines we’ve set in place for our classroom, as well as their collaborative group roles (which you can read about here). In this way, we are taking time during the first few days of school to establish and practice guidelines and procedures that will stay with us through the rest of the year.
Introducing and establishing the collaborative group roles and classroom guidelines are typically how I start my year. These activities usually makeup the first couple of days of my school year, followed next by building our science notebooks. It usually takes about a week, but by the time I am done, my students are organized with their science notebooks and well practiced in the procedures and guidelines that will make the rest of our school year run smoothly. It’s definitely worth the week I give it at the start of the year!
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