My daughter is in honors Bio and has never had a real lab - all are simulated or online

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a science teacher I can think of a few reasons for no physical labs:

1. Not able to meet all accommodations (rare) or not enough para support.
2. Too many students so exceed MSDE regs
3. “Lazy teacher”, but accurately a teacher not getting enough support or leadership. Ordering can be a pain in so many ways and the expectation that teachers should spend their own money and time to get materials is not realistic or sustainable even if there is paperwork for reimbursement. Just one missing item (material, tool, reagent, glassware) missing from one station means the lab cannot happen.
4. Concerns about student behavior. One or two out of control students who are not able to work independently without distracting others can be enough to dissuade a teacher from hands on lessons.
5. Teachers who have health problems so need to focus on reliable lessons that can be done with a sub.
6. Too many preps. Once you get past two, labs can be a real pain to set up and put away through out the day. Some schools have lab assistants to help with this.
7. This is a big one right now: student attendance! If a lab is a major grade there is a need to make it up. So, it points all prep on slow mode in terms of putting things away and moving on. (Retake policies can create a similar issue).

Appreciate the thoughtful reply. Is there anything parents could do that would help (eg pressing district on any of these issues)? Or are there just too many obstacles that solving one or two would create more stress and pressure for the teachers?

Push for smaller class sizes and more teacher support. I remember one class that had the ED cluster students in it. It was a frog dissection lab and we had 8 adults in the class to provide assistance. It was glorious!! All kids benefit from smaller class sizes. Having more para or co-teacher support is awesome as well. Oftentimes science classes get less support than math and English along with much bigger class sizes. You can’t easily do a lab with 36 kids in a room meant for 24-30. Throw in a couple of IEPs, 504s and ESOLs, suddenly any labs beyond a few steps gets really hard if not impossible without more adults in the room.

And this is why regulated classrooms for everyone sucks. Sorry but if you can't do a simple lab because some kids can't understand English or can't sit still, then they opt out and do online crap.

So sick of the excuses of why we keep dumbing down the education system.