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Resource Detail: Journal Article

Resource Image Teacher's Toolkit: Reforming cookbook labs

By: Erin Peters
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Details

Type of Resource: Journal Article
Average Rating: Rating
 based on 3 - 14 / 4.66666666666667 reviews
Publication Title: Science Scope
Publication Date: 11/1/2005
Volume and Issue: Vol 029 Issue 03
Pages: 6
Grade Level: Middle School

Description

The majority of ancillary materials provided with any textbook includes a large quantity of labs that have step-by-step instructions. Although it is important in science for students to learn how to follow directions, offering only cookbook labs limits students' access to exploration. Presented in this article are 11 different ways of altering cookbook labs so that students understand the intention of the procedure. The altered labs do not fully achieve the status of inquiry-lab, but they are a step toward allowing more open-ended discovery.

Ideas For Use

Once teachers see evidence that the management of open-ended labs is possible, they are more likely to have an inquiry-based sequence of instruction. A step in the right direction in the reform of cookbook labs is by slowly incorporating more activities that require more critical thinking from students.

Discussions

Additional Info

Science Discipline: (mouse over for full classification)
Asking questions
Experimenting
Interpreting data
Scientific habits of mind
Intended User Role:Curriculum Supervisor, Middle-Level Educator, Teacher
Educational Issues:Classroom management, Curriculum, Inquiry learning, Instructional materials, Professional development, Teacher preparation, Teaching strategies

Technical

Resource Format:application/pdf
Size:233 KB
Requirements:Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader


National Standards Correlation

This resource has 10 correlations with the National Standards.  
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This resource has 10 correlations with the National Standards.  
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  • Science as Inquiry
    • Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
      • Ask a question about objects, organisms, and events in the environment. (K-4)
      • Use data to construct a reasonable explanation.
      • Design and conduct a scientific investigation.
      • Use appropriate tools and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret data.
      • Develop descriptions, explanations, predictions, and models using evidence.
      • Think critically and logically to make the relationships between evidence and explanations.
    • Understandings about scientific inquiry
      • Scientists use different kinds of investigations depending on the questions they are trying to answer.
      • Scientists make the results of their investigations public; they describe the investigations in ways that enable others to repeat the investigations. (K-4)
  • Teaching Standards
      • Deepens educators’ content knowledge, provides them with research-based instructional strategies to assist students in meeting rigorous academic standards, and prepares them to use various types of classroom assessments appropriately. (NSDC)
      • Teachers of science develop communities of science learners that reflect the intellectual rigor of scientific inquiry.
        • Model and emphasize the skills, attitudes, and values of scientific inquiry.

User Reviews

From Traditional To Inquriy
  Adah (San Antonio, TX) on May 25, 2011
  This article deconstructs standard cook-book science labs. The author provides eleven ways to alter cookbook labs so that students understand the intention of the procedure – mix-up the steps; give just the procedure; use of concept maps; and more. There are several examples provided in the article. More importantly this article shows how the author took traditional textbook labs and moved them into the realm of inquiry. This is a great approach to use with students.

11 Simple Ways to Improve Your Teaching
  Kate Geer (Louisville, CO) on November 15, 2010
  This article outlines 11 simple ways to infuse more critical thinking into your science classroom. These 11 strategies help you to easily add more critical thinking and student ownership to your labs.

revising lab reports
  nancy bort (arlington, va) on January 31, 2011
  In this article, the author offers examples of how to take the standard type lab that we all do in our science classes and turn it into something with a bit more oomph--not doing cook book labs. She gives her students various parts of a lab and they need to figure out the rest of it! Wouldn't it me neat to give our students a conclusion and they need to figure out the lab to go with it!


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