Engaging Students in Laboratory

Settings

Laura H & Auburn J

Importance of Student Presentations

Motivation Understanding Preparation

Students don’t want

to look bad in front of

their peers,

presentations

motivate them to

know their material

Students understand

material at a deeper

level from explaining

it to others

In the real world,

students will need to

present information in

the business place,

gives practice for

business skills

Engaging Students

• Switch talkative students to passive roles so they don’t dominate the

lab group

• Put meaning behind the data

– Judge/courtroom results from video

– Use samples from students or the school so students are learning about their

environment

– Connect to student interests

• Offering rewards or “winning”

• Groups

– Keep groups small enough so everyone is working

– Time keeper and time limits push students

– Rotate roles, students look forward to different roles,

some more engaging than others

Making Labs Scientific Studies

• Give students a question to answer not a procedure to follow

• Make labs relevant to the student, have them determine the

concentration of bacteria on their hands or the pH of water in school

toilets

• Ask students open ended questions about the experiment so they can

lead themselves to the answer

• Be the “devil’s advocate”

– Point out ambiguities the students need to account for in their models

– Introduce alternate points of view

Thank You!