Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Mission imPOSSIBLE: Problem Solving Approach to Lab Safety

On a daily basis we encounter several "problems" some are more extreme than others. The common problems that I encounter on daily basis are:
what to eat?
What to wear?
How do I do everything in a short period of time?
How do I design this lesson to engage and educate my students?
 These problems are big and small but, are still practical to my life.
What was my lesson?
The information students wanted to
Know about the incident.
This week in class we learned the problem solving approach pedagogy (PBL). I then got to teach a segment of my lesson for a lab safety unit. I had the students get into a group of 4 and work on a case study. Before doing the case study on a girl hurt in the lab we discussed what factors we needed to know in order to solve the problem:what happened to her. Then in the groups students each had a role such as scribe, reader, sketch artist and reporter. They worked on cracking the case as a group and then would report out to the group.


My lesson plan was solid. I knew what I was going to teach and how I was going to teach it. The words on the paper and the teaching that I did were two separate things.

Gems:
  1. My interest approach was a rap on lab safety and the students enjoyed it! The questions I used to lead into the case study were great and engaging and on track
  2. The case study itself was well thought out. I had roles that fostered a good learning environment by letting students pick different roles to fit their needs in the group.
Opps:
  1. Clarity was lacked throughout the transition from my interest approach and into the activity. I did not give clear instructions on what was happening or how it would work. 
  2. Taking a step back and allowing for more think time for students. I rushed into the next activity when I should have paused. I also could have paused more in general and allowed students to digest the instructions and content.
How do you provide clarity to students on assignments or tasks?
What are some engaging way to teach safety in a lab without reading the rules off?
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3 comments:

  1. Daniel FosterOctober 9, 2019 at 5:01 PM

    Never forget the power of individual "think time!"

    Have students write down their thoughts in their lab notebooks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kaitlin LiszkaOctober 10, 2019 at 8:43 AM

    I think that the video you showed was a great example of a way to teach safety in a lab without reading the rules off! It might also be fun to have some sort of 'game' where students have to identify hazards or things safe procedures being followed kinda like "Where's Waldo".

    I also liked how you incorporated the problem solving approach into your lab safety because students have to use more critical thinking skills, which should help them internalize what they learned about lab safety better, so they hopefully are more likely to follow the safety procedures. The example you gave also I think helped give the students a very applicable 'why' for following lab safety procedures.

    ReplyDelete
  3. weekanneOctober 14, 2019 at 11:13 AM

    Testing.

    ReplyDelete

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