Lab Reports: Not Just Another Mindless Exercise
This study took place at a medium sized public middle school in a once rural and now growing Northern California city. The study focused on a 6th grade level Earth Science class whose members were all part of an academy for students who excel in math. In many classrooms it is common for teacher s to provide students with a worksheet that lists the steps of the scientific method and then provide them with a quick rundown on how to write a lab reports.
This had been the depth of my instruction on lab reports at the beginning of the school year. An examination of student work revealed that my students had trouble analyzing and drawing conclusions from data they had gathered in laboratory experiments. The students were also having difficulty writing a proper scientific hypothesis and procedures. I knew that I needed to employ a new strategy if I wanted me students to be able to express what they had learned through scientific inquiry.
