Cells & Homeostasis: Lab Safety

We began class with a TED Talk by Suzanne Lee, the designer we read about last Friday who is using bacteria to grow clothing.

For their entry task, students were asked to write at least four sentences answering: In the future, what would you choose to grow?  Why?  We practiced A/B structured partner talk and followed that with a class share-out.

After a brief class discussion, we worked through the PBIS lesson for the day, with each class period sharing thoughts about how the Pirate Way looks in the classroom.  The 5 Pirate Way values are Positive, Respect, Responsibility, Engaged, and Persistent.  After a brief A/B structured partner talk, students provided the following examples of the values in action:

Positive (Period 2)

• Stay focused
• Turn in work
• Turn in work on time
• Assume positive intent
• Help each other

Respect (Period 3)

• No running around
• Listen when others are talking
• Keep hands to yourself
• Assume best intent
• Practice active listening

Responsibility (Period 4)

• Turning in your work
• Arrive in class on time
• Complete your homework
• Bring materials to class and use them appropriately
• Pay attention
• Stay on task
• Knowing what’s going on

Engaged (Period 5)

• Actively participating
• Paying attention
• Active listening
• Staying on task
• Staying focused

We wrapped up with a review of the syllabus (handed out last week), the safety contract (students learned where the equipment is located and should return the signed form tomorrow), and a video about how to use a fire extinguisher:

A few classes finished a bit early and were treated to a video about Algae Girl:

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Matter, Atomic Structure, and Bonding: Lab Equipment and Safety

Daily Objectives:

• What: Learn about the tools chemists use
• How: 1. Locate classroom safety equipment and 2. Identify common chemistry equipment
• Why: Pirates practice safe science

Continuing on Friday’s theme of lab safety, we began class with the Lesson 1 worksheet and students worked through Part 1 as the entry task.  During that time, I took attendance and used the seating chart feature of Illuminate to create a seating chart for the purpose of quickly learning student names.  Next, students watched a quick video showing how to properly use a fire extinguisher:

We then participated in the first day of PBIS lessons (Pirate Hooks!) before launching in to Part 2 of the worksheet.  The instructions were modified to fit the realities of our classroom.  Because we have storage rooms for equipment and supplies, all of the items in lists A-H were pre-scavenged and arranged in stations around the classroom.  Working in groups of four students, groups rotated through four of the eight stations.  One student was tasked with taking pictures of each piece of equipment, and each of the four students in the group was responsible for reading the description card and summarizing it for one of the four pieces of equipment at a station.  The group will then work together to collate all of the pictures and descriptions into a PowerPoint (or similar) presentation which they must then email me by Friday for credit.  At the end of class, students received their textbook to take home and were instructed to cover it as part of their homework.

Tomorrow we will continue the PBIS lesson (the Pirate Way at assemblies, sporting events, and the library) and we will complete the Lesson 1 classroom activity.

Homework:

1. Cover textbook (a paper bag cut and taped around the cover works great!)
2. Read chapter 1 (pages 1-5)
3. Complete the questions on page 5 (#1-8, due Thursday)
4. Complete the PowerPoint as a group (email to me by Friday)
   1. Include the initials of the student who wrote the summary for each piece of equipment
   2. When emailing the PowerPoint, include the first and last names of each group member as text in the body of the email.
5. Turn in a signed copy of the class syllabus and safety contract
6. Turn in the student questionnaire