Educator Guide

This guide is intended to provide notes to the educator about the nuances and best practices of each lab. These labs have been written for groups of 3-4 students but can be adapted to larger or smaller groups.

1. This is a fun lab to do outside, as long as you have something to weight the paper items with. It can also be done inside in a long hallway. If 50 meters is not available, replace the 50 in the scale equation with the length of your space, in meters.
2. This lab was written specifically for the science building at Tacoma Community College, which contains a display of many different minerals. Adaption of the table will likely be necessary for a scavenger hunt at a different institution.
3. This lab requires a good deal of preparation. It may be a good idea to premix the wet ingredients and dry ingredients. Safety goggles should be worn by all at all times. When students add the dry ice to their mixtures in the bag, make sure they are not holding the bag shut (i.e. they are letting the CO2 gas escape). A hair dryer and a heat lamp should both be used for the sun to represent not only its heat but the directionality of the solar wind.
4. This one is a little messy, and best suited for a lab where there are sinks present to wash paint brushes and hands.
5. It is often difficult to measure the wavelength and amplitude data precisely enough to answer the questions about the order they go in in a way consistent with their actual densities (Q1). Feel free to reassure students that “incorrect” results are part of the scientific process and likely to occur when data acquisition is challenging.
6. It can take a while to get a hang of the game, which requires one person to keep track of the changing numbers and rolls (the game master, or GM). It can take about 90 minutes for a single game if students are not familiar with the rules already. Once familiar, it usually takes about 20 minutes to play. For this reason I use this activity as a lab but also a rainy day or end of quarter fun activity.
7. The first station results (amino acids in peptide bonds) can be all assembled together at the end of the lab. The second station is a little mathy and make take some extra time. Make sure all students are wearing safety goggles until the balloon is disposed of. The third station is fairly straightforward. It’s also a good lesson in public health (i.e. why we have to wash our hands with soap).
8. It’s very interesting to see the types of worlds students come up with. If you have a background in biology, feel free to add more specifics/questions to this lab (i.e. food chains, adaptations, etc). Be prepared to have an answer when students ask what defines sentience (my answer is “this is a hotly debated topic but…”)
9. This lab is highly variable upon what kinds of fossils you have lying around your institution. I recommend as many fossils as possible from a wide range of ages. My intention is to highlight the diversity of life on Earth but also to explain the biases we have in our understanding due to the different ways different materials fossilize (or don’t!)
10. This one’s my favorite! Effective and responsible science communication is truly an underrated part of a science curriculum. Sometimes I like to bring in silly little prizes for the victor (stickers, pins, candy, etc). It is a good “last week” activity that ties together everything students have learned throughout the quarter. Please share this lab with your colleagues and encourage them to adapt it to important discoveries in their particular science.