Critiques of Lab Presentations
Lab 1: Crystal Growth
Benjamin Tangney
I thought that the “Growing a crystal garden” was well thought out. I think that when used in a classroom with ninth graders, they would really appreciate being able to see the progress of the crystals forming. I think that to alter the experiment a little, as a teacher you could change the briquettes to sponges or something else just so that the students see the difference. The idea of putting the trays in different areas of the room to get different temperatures is a good idea as well. Another thought would be to complete the lab quickly, put the trays away before the students see them, and have a discussion of what they predict will happen, go over evaporation, and then return to the trays at a later date to help display the points made.
Sarah Schneider
I though this lab went really well. The presenters knew what they were doing and it was clear that they had done the activity before class. They were very prepared and had all the materials. It is good that they knew that the crystals were going to take a while to grow and what conditions would help them to grow. You could take it a step further and have certain groups place their briquettes in different any where else. Then the class could discuss what factors might play a role in how fast or how much crystal grows. Another suggestion that I have is to maybe have the students predict what will grow, how much, and why it grows before discussing it or before they have a chance to see the final result. They did a great job with discussing the questions at the end and they made sure that the class understood what was occurring to make the crystals grow. I think that ninth graders will love doing this activity because they are see first hand how crystals are formed and what process are involved.
February 19, 2007
Crystal Garden
My first impression of the crystal garden laboratory exercise was a bit fuzzy since I seemed to be the only one who didn’t quite understand what the objective was. I was trying to understand the purpose for each of the chemicals used in the experiment and almost completely lost track of the main purpose, which was to identify evaporation in the system. Once I was able to understand that the experiment wasn’t as intricate as first thought I was able to appreciate the effectiveness of the demonstration to a middle school science class. As for the actual lab I was pleased with the ability to work with others and witness a reaction that was surprising to see. The lab procedure was easy to follow and is a nice supplement to a class lesson on evaporation and wouldn’t take up the entire class time. Well done.
Michelle Cipriano
The crystal lab was fantastic in the fact that it was “hands on” and would keep students’ interests. My concerns are the ingredients, certain ingredients have strong odors and the potential to ruin clothing. Personally I would either use a different recipe or save it for a week when open windows would be comfortable, either early fall or late spring. I liked how we were encouraged to play with the salt levels when mixing, it has a fun feeling to it.
Mike Ballard
I think this lab will work very well. I would like to see the final results before saying it was an excellent lab. The group obviously knew what they were doing, and that they had already gone through the procedure.
I think that students would really like this lab because it is fun, and exciting to see what is going to happen. I think that there could be a number of different things that could be done with this lab such as different temperature, or different rocks for the crystals to grow on.
Jaci Melo
I think that this was a fun activity but I did not understand the point of it until I read the handout for myself. I was never made aware once in the activity that growing the crystals was to prove the existence of evaporation, and I don’t know what particle precipitation is. I still don’t understand how this activity demonstrates this. I would have liked for the group to have talked about the purpose of this activity more. What grade would this be for? I had a hard time trying to decipher the age group that an activity such as this would be used.
I did enjoy the activity and I feel as though children will as well. It is fun for anyone to see the results in something that you create yourself. It would be very useful in the classroom if explained with more detail and information.
Beth Cousineau
Growing the Crystal Garden was a really cool idea. I thought that the presenters were articulate and clear with what the directions were. The size of the groups worked well and the handout was clear. It was a little confusing in the hand out when it said “your garden”. Our group thought it meant the entire dish but really it was only the charcoal, which resulted in us putting the solution and salt more in the liquid than on the charcoal.
In addition the materials that were used to grow the crystal garden are more appropriate for an older class, because of their potential harm. The only other thing that I would suggest to the group is to explain the purpose a little more. I was actually sure what I was supposed to be learning in this lab. I didn’t know if it had more of a chemistry base or evaporation.
Jona, Ashley, and Matt acted very professional. They were available to help us as they walked around. I also liked how we get to leave our crystal garden to see it grow. I’m interested to see whose grows the most and what they did differently from the other groups.
Lab 2: Subducting Plate
Jessica Banewicz Lab Critiques
I liked the lab Real Evidence of a Subducting Plate because it was an active project that took time enough for one laboratory period, but was not horribly time consuming. It proved a point through a constructive hands-on activity and encouraged participation. However, as we pointed out as a class, there were some issues with the lab. The map was not in proportion with the pushpins which led to overlaying epicenter points. Toothpicks or shishkabob sticks work much better because they are thinner and do not get in the way of one another. However, I would not consider blowing up the map much larger because it would be more difficult to see the visual. Also, I do not personally feel that the beads are necessary. One could observe the subducting plate illustration without the headache of putting beads on the end of each thread or wooden stick. I would definitely use this lab in a future classroom while studying earthquakes and tectonic plates because it facilitates understanding of subducting plates and creates a visual of an existing plate.
I was not particularly fond of the Growing a Crystal Garden lab mostly because the results were not immediate. I feel that ninth grade students would grow bored waiting to see results. I probably would not do the exact lab in my classroom because the ammonia causes an odor that would plague the classroom all day long, the application of the demonstration is too short lived while one must wait for a long period of time to see the results, and students may become confused as to whether the crystals are growing due to a chemical reaction rather than due to evaporation. However, maybe when I see the results in the next class, I will change my mind! This very well may be a good long running project to use in the classroom. However, I probably would prepare only one demonstration during a class myself and have the students observe it.
Jona Snyder
I found the Earthquake demonstration to be extremely well done. Each of the presenters knew the topic well, were helpful to the class. I feel they demonstrated leadership skills and professionalism to the class. There were not many things I would change about the activity except for building the actual beads. If I were to use this lab in my classroom I would have pre-measured and tied the beads so the activity didn’t take so long to complete. Congratulations group two on a job well done!
Gary Osarczuk
Overall, I think that the lesson here was great. Demonstrating the concept of plate tectonics effectively in the classroom is sometimes hard. I can’t remember any demonstrations in my high school classroom dealing with plate tectonics. From this lesson I think that students will fully comprehend the concept subduction zones. They will also realize that earth quakes frequently occur along plate boundaries. It would be good to also used this approach for all plate boundaries, not only subduction. Perhaps students could comparing data from convergent, divergent, transform, and also rift zones and do a project which discussed the differences and similarities of each. This way students realize that there are more plate boundaries than just subduction zones.
There were a few things, however that I felt lacked slightly in this presentation. First, something has to be done with the bead and string approach. This took too long, and was too tedious. In perhaps a better method would be to use the long pointed sticks that Dr. Ebert had in class instead of the bead and string approach. These would not only decrease the overall time of the lab, but they would also prevent tangling of the strings, a problem which my group faced. Also, I think a little more emphasis should have been places into the depth of the earthquakes. Depth was briefly mentioned in class, but I think that depth is the more important factor when teaching a lesson on subduction zones. All in all, I think that this was a solid presentation.
Matt Entwistle
The subducting plate lab was a great example of how to visually represent earthquakes and epicenters with regards to location. Once the lab was completed, I was fully able to see how the depth of the epicenters affected the surface due to its location. I feel that as a teacher this would be a great lab to teach to my students because it covers so many different skills. You have to convert, measure, plot, and reflect. All of these skills are imperative to students because they affect their everyday lives. The lab didn’t take that long either. I feel comfortable about the topic now after completing this laboratory experiment. I had no idea that the energy from an earthquake was affected by its location. This was new to me. Now after completing the lab, I feel as though I have a better understanding and would feel comfortable teaching others about the topic. The only thing that I didn’t like about the lab was tying the beads to the string. When Dr. Ebert showed us that we could use skewers to represent the string, I thought that was a better way to approach the lab. Less hassle and less time consuming for the students. Overall, this was a great lab and I would definitely teach it to my students in the future.
Michelle Cipriano
This one is an excellent lab when adjusted, I especially agree with Dr. Ebert’s suggestion to use a wooden stakes instead of string. Fewer data points would also be an excellent adjustment to this lab. The boxes should definitely be set up prior to the students coming to class. This lab should definitely have lots of attention, students will be tempted to hurt themselves.
I think the laboratory concept was brilliant and very informative. I think it will certainly work in an actual classroom setting and demonstrates many qualities that students need to learn throughout the course of the year. Students learned to follow a procedure, use latitude and longitudinal coordinates, used actual data, participated in a group activity, problem solving, and finally, produced a model that would visually represent earthquake patterns and the resulting subducting plate theory accepted by science. As others have noted, the only thing I might change would concern the process of attaching the beads to the string. It was time consuming and didn’t hold a purpose in the particular lab. That is the only criticism I was able to provide. I enjoyed the lab and certainly found a lot of practicality in the exercise.
Gary Osarczuk
Overall, I think that the lesson here was great. Demonstrating the concept of plate tectonics effectively in the classroom is sometimes hard. I can’t remember any demonstrations in my high school classroom dealing with plate tectonics. From this lesson I think that students will fully comprehend the concept subduction zones. They will also realize that earth quakes frequently occur along plate boundaries. It would be good to also used this approach for all plate boundaries, not only subduction. Perhaps students could comparing data from convergent, divergent, transform, and also rift zones and do a project which discussed the differences and similarities of each. This way students realize that there are more plate boundaries than just subduction zones.
There were a few things, however that I felt lacked slightly in this presentation. First, something has to be done with the bead and string approach. This took too long, and was too tedious. In perhaps a better method would be to use the long pointed sticks that Dr. Ebert had in class instead of the bead and string approach. These would not only decrease the overall time of the lab, but they would also prevent tangling of the strings, a problem which my group faced. Also, I think a little more emphasis should have been places into the depth of the earthquakes. Depth was briefly mentioned in class, but I think that depth is the more important factor when teaching a lesson on subduction zones. All in all, I think that this was a solid presentation.
Jaci Melo
I loved this activity. I was unsure what it was going to look like at the end when we first started to plot the earthquakes but in the end I was trilled with the results. I think this is the best way I have ever seen to show earthquakes on a subduction plate. I think that getting an image in your head of what it actually looks like is quite difficult and this activity does exactly that.
I found the activity a little tedious but I think that could be easily remedied by dividing the groups into five students and giving them each a task. One student could plot the earthquakes, one could do the math on the chart, one student could cut the strings, one could add the beads, and the other student could put the string onto the proper pushpin. I think that this would help the activity move along quicker as well as giving each student a purpose. Also instead of just letting the groups figure out the best way to attach the string themselves, for the sake of time, I would explain or show the most efficient way. I found it rather frustrating when we were more than half way done and the group leaders walked over to us and told us that there was a much easier way to attach the strings. If they had just instructed us from the beginning we might not have been as frustrated as we became.
Beth Cousineau
My favorite part of the subduction zone lab was the last part when we go to see the position and depth of the earth quakes. I liked cutting out the side of the box and seeing the angle and dispersion of all of the earthquakes along the subduction zone. The lab was very practical for a high school earth science class.
The group did a good job of helping us. When I first received the handout I was nervous because it was so long. But, they explained what was to be done which helped a lot. The action of stringing and tying the beads, measuring the length and plotting the point was a little tedious. I liked Dr. Ebert’s suggestion of using skewers. If students did that they would also be able to use varying size beads to represent different magnitude earthquakes.
Sarah, Ben, and Mike were very helpful. They explained the lab clearly and I knew what the objective of it was. This lab allowed my group to try out different ways of completing it, which is extremely beneficial in a high school science class because it will encourage experimenting and exploration of the lab. They explained this was to be used to illustrate a subduction zone through the occurrence of earthquakes. They also had a good wrap up of the activity.