The Use of Laboratory in High school Science

John Lemberger, Ph.D. University of Wisconsin Oshkosh

Sara Dobish

Oshkosh West High School

Jodi Seckar Oshkosh West High School

Holly Pershing

Oshkosh West High School

Science is unique in the K-12 school curriculum because it is the one subject that

can be taught using student-centered laboratory experiences. Not all laboratories,

however, are the same. The nature and use of laboratory in science instruction can be

traced back at least as far as the formation of The Committee of Ten in 1892 (DeBoer,

1991). The Committee of Ten and its various subcommittees came out strongly in favor

of laboratory-based science instruction. Several approaches to science laboratory came

out of this movement: inductive labs where students collect data and use the data to

develop a generalization about the topic of study, deductive labs where students learn a

general principle and then move to laboratory to test the principle, and inquiry.

The nature of science instruction was taken up again after the launch of Sputnik in

1957. Americans felt they were behind the Russians in science. The Cold War was about

to impact science education in the United States. In 1959 the Woods Hole Conference

was convened to assess the state of science education in the U.S. and to make

recommendations. Some like Brunner (1960) emphasized the structure teaching the

discipline along with an inductive (discovery learning) approach to teaching science.

Others like Schwab (1962) argued for a more fundamental shift in science teaching that

mirrored the epistemological shift in how scientific knowledge was viewed. This new

view of knowledge as tentative was reflected in Schwab’s enquiry approach to science

teaching (modern inquiry).

Today science teachers have three kinds of laboratory approaches that they can

use to teach science effectively, the inductive laboratory where students gather data, look

for patterns in the data, and make generalizations based on the data. This approach is

described as discovery learning. Another approach is the deductive laboratory where

students learn about a principle in lecture and the test out that principle in lab. This

approach can be described as verification learning. A third approach is the hypothetico-

deductive lab where students make hypotheses to explain some natural phenomenon and

then test their hypothesis in the lab.

To see how modern teachers are using laboratory in their teaching, three science

teachers were interviewed. All three teachers are teaching at Oshkosh West High School

(OWHS). OWHS is the largest of three high schools in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. It has a

student population of about 1900. There are 15 science teachers. The three teachers

interviewed were Sara Dobish, a biology teacher, Jodi Seckar, a 9th grade general science

teacher, and Holly Pershing, a chemistry teacher.

Sara Dobish graduated from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh in 1999 with a

Bachelor's of Science in Secondary Education and in 2004 with a Master's of Science

Degree in Educational Leadership from. She has been teaching at West for 10 years and

has never taught anywhere else. She teaches Biology I, and Biology II. Ms. Dobish is

currently the co-chair of the science department.

Jodi Seckar earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree in elementary education with a

science minor from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh in 1997. Her first year of

teaching was in New London Junior High School teaching physical science at the 9th

grade level. She has taught 9th grade physical science classes at OWHS since she began

there in 1998. She co-chairs the science department with Sara Dobish.

Holly Pershing is a relatively new teacher. This is only her second year of

teaching at OWHS. She has one previous year of teaching science at Assumption

Catholic High School, a private school. Ms. Pershing has a bachelor’s degree in biology

education from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. She is certified to teach

broadfield science, biology/life science, chemistry, physics, and earth and space science.

She also has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-

Oshkosh.

The example of how laboratory is used in teaching science is a forensics unit

presented by Sara Dobish. This unit is approximately 9 weeks long and contains 7 labs.

Some of these labs take two or three days. Ms. Dobish is somewhat limited in how she

uses laboratory because of safety issues regarding hazardous materials and organisms.

She stated that was a unique limitation to biology labs. For this reason she sometimes

avoids using an open inquiry approach to lab. Students have to know the dangers they

might be exposed to. Ms. Dobish most often takes a deductive approach to laboratory.

Students learn general principles in lecture and then go to lab to verify that principle.

One of the forensics unit labs is a student classification of different kinds of latent

fingerprints. Students are given a handout and lecture about the different kinds of

fingerprints. After that they use several techniques to take their own fingerprints. One

technique is super glue fuming. Each student leaves his or her thumbprint on a soda can.

The can is sealed inside a plastic bag with several drops of super glue. The fumes from

the super glue stick to the friction ridges of the thumbprint and show up under a light

source. Ms. Dobish reviews the different types f fingerprints and students must identify

their own.

Ms Seckar uses long plastic tubes full of different colored liquids and a bubble to

challenge her students’ ideas about speed. The students begin the lab by observing the

bubble in their tube rise as the tube is tilted upward. They are asked to use a white board

to describe the motion of the bubble. From their observations and work with the white

board the students are asked to develop a formula to describe speed. Once the class has

had a chance to discuss their ideas they develop a common formula for speed and apply

that formula to another situation in a subsequent lab. Here Ms. Seckar is using two lab

approaches. The first approach is an inductive lab where students are asked to work from

results to a generalization (i.e., the formula for speed). In the second lab Ms. Seckar uses

a deductive approach where the students apply the formula they developed to a novel

situation.

"Labs in the science classrooms are very helpful to the learning process. Labs give me actual experience related to the theories we learn through notes. Not that taking notes isn't glorious fun, but actually putting them into action helps to reinforce the ideas and material in my mind. Taking notes will only get students so far but labs take it the extra mile and make education so much more meaningful! No one is going to truly care what they are learning if they never get to see it in practice. Therefore, do labs; they're cool!" - Will Berendsen

Ms. Pershing offered the example of a lab on Boyle’s Law. Currently she presents

Boyle’s Law to her students in lecture and then sends them to lab to verify its predictions

(a deductive approach). The students use a plastic soda bottle with a tire valve glued into

its neck. Inside the sealed bottle is a syringe. Ms. Pershing uses a pump to fill the bottle

with air until 40 psi. This pushes the syringe plunger in. The students read the syringe

volume and record their results. They then allow some air to escape through the air valve,

and read the syringe volume again. This process is followed until there are 5 readings.

The students then plot volume versus pressure to test the prediction of Boyle’s Law.

Ms. Pershing is considering reversing this teaching sequence by having her

students do the lab first. This would give them the chance to derive Boyle’s Law (an

inductive approach). She believes that this would be equally effective and might be more

interesting for the students.

This caption is for "Boyle's Law Lab" photos #1 & 2 Under Pressure! Students investigate Boyle's law by experimenting with the relationship between volume and pressure. From left to right: Kevin Toddish, Will Berendsen, Samantha Duehring, Sara Hansen, and Mrs. Holly Pershing This caption is for "Boyle's Law Lab" photo #3

A student uses a pressure guage to discover the relationship between the volume of a syringe and the pressure within the bottle.

All three teachers stated that they teach more material through laboratory

instruction than their teachers did. However, they mentioned some constraints they felt

about using laboratory. As new teachers they felt less comfortable using laboratory to

teach. As they matured as teachers they felt more comfort with trying new things and

taking chances. They also recognized that laboratory was constrained by pacing with

other teachers teaching the same labs. Limited equipment that had to be shared with other

teachers was cited as the most important consideration.

The various approaches to laboratory instruction developed in the latter part of the

19th century and refined in the 20th century are currently being used in American high

schools, as these three teachers demonstrate. It should also be noted that these teachers

are very much aware of the different approaches to laboratory instruction and are very

thoughtful about which approach to take based on the advantages of each approach.

Here are the photos and quotes from three of my chemistry students.

"Labs in the science classrooms are very helpful to the learning process. Labs give me actual experience related to the theories we learn through notes. Not that taking notes isn't glorious fun, but actually putting them into action helps to reinforce the ideas and material in my mind. Taking notes will only get students so far but labs take it the extra mile and make education so much more meaningful! No one is going to truly care what they are learning if they never get to see it in practice. Therefore, do labs; they're cool!" - Will Berendsen "When I am sitting in chemistry day after day and just taking notes, it can get a little monotonous. But when we do labs to apply what we learned, it helps me to understand how much the things we do in class apply to my everyday life. I like doing labs because I am more of a visual person and actually doing sor seeing a procedure done enhances my learning" -Sara Hansen "Labs are a great way to get away from the worn path of notes and homework, and notes and homework again. Its a great way to actually see what we learn in class. Overall, labs are a necessity in all science-related classes." - Kevin Toddish

References

Brunner, J. (1960). The process of education. New York: Vintage.

DeBoer, G.E. (1991). A history of ideas in science education: Implications for practice.

Teachers College Press: New York.

Schwab, J. (1962). The teaching of science as enquiry. In The teaching of science.

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

More photos