This site is a class blog space for new Career and Technical Specializations and Heathcare Science teachers enrolled in the New Teacher Institute (NTI) at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Upward Bound-Lab Challenge
One challenge I had in the area of laboratory management this week was working through a handwashing activtiy with 24 students. We were reviewing our lesson on infection control and I tried out what I considered a simple activtiy to reinforce the concept of good handwashing.They watched a video on how germs are transmitted and proper handwashing before the activity. For the activity, I invited the students to place a small amount of special handwashing lotion over their hands and then wash them as they thought appropriate. After they had completed washing their hands, I had each student to come over to where I was standing (in a darkened area) to view their hands under an ultraviolet hand held light. Any residue of the lotion would glow on their hands under the light. Needless to say, it was a chaotic event. Because of the small amount of lotion I had to work with, and not trusting the students to work with the one light I had correctly, I thought it was best that I looked over these items personally. During the activity there were students not participating, talking, not following directions, texting etc. I did not put a time limit on the activity initially and finally told the students that we had to move on to our next activity and discontinued the event after about 10 minutes of time. It was interesting to see the number of students who suddenly wanted to go ahead and complete the task once they saw that time was running out!
Upward Bound,
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain! I had that same handwashing activity and guess what, I had to buy the supplies wh needed to complete the skills check off. And yes my students were doing some of the same thing your students were doing except texting. I can say my administrations supports us when dealing with cell phones.
I learned later to start giving enrichment activities to go along with the skills or unit of study. Enrichment activities...what's that? Well that the exact question I asked my Instructional Specialist. Once it was explained I was able to come up with a few assignments that counted for a grade during the check offs. One in particular kept the students really involved. The assignment was to create (and no computer use) a cross word puzzle related to the vocabulary words for the Unit of study. While they were working on the cross word puzzle, I would call one student to the sink and we were able to get through the skills exercise - it took 2 days with 26 students but we made it!
The other point that may make the students get up and get the skills completed is to remind them that the skills checkoff counts for a large portion of their grade. The skills checkoff counts for 30% of the grades in my class.
Everything will work out for us.