1. Best practices for lab:
(Warning: You don’t need to have all of these in every lab!)
Give students a chance to make up their own procedures
Incorporate activities that simulate how scientists came up with a theory or hypothesis.
Incorporate jigsaw (or other) activities that emphasize coming to a consensus, working together, and peer review.
Incorporate activities that emphasize student data collection (quantitative and qualitative), analysis, and interpretation.
De-emphasize getting the “right” answer and help students learn to deal with ambiguous data and analyze their own methodologies.
Encourage students to support their arguments with data.
Allow students to build and interact with models—and make the role of the model in the process of science explicit. Help students recognize the similarities and differences models have with the real system
Provide time for students to reflect on how their activities relate to the nature and process of science—and how their understanding of this is changing.