The checkbox is then used by students to mark where they are in the directions.  It is so simple that you might even be skeptical that it even works.   Obviously, some of your students will not be swayed by the checkbox, but you will see a major improvement in students following a dissection guide.   I’m not sure of the exact psychology behind the technique, but it has worked for me.  You can even see that many of my labs and dissection guides have squares (now made with a word processor) for students to check as they complete each step.   If you have a student that gets off task, and raises his hand to ask that common lab question “what do I do next”, you can then redirect his eyes to the paper and the checkboxes and ask him what step he is on.  Employing this technique from the very beginning of the year also goes a long way toward training students to read and follow directions rather than waiting on the teacher to personally walk them through each step.   Now, there are going to be times that you do need to give students individualized attention and guidance, but if you’re like me in a class of 30 students, the more of them you can get to self-direct, the better off you are. 

You can see the SQUARE in action on many of my dissection guides, check out the  crayfish dissection or the frog dissection.

Just yesterday, my freshman started the frog dissection.  Most of them are reading the directions, doing what it says, such as “remove the eye” and checking the box as they go.   Then there’s Joe, who immediately chops off the frogs arms and legs and sits there with his dismembered frog before finally raising his hand to call me over.  I sigh when I see what he has done and already suspect what he’s going to ask……   “What am I supposed to do?”    I sit down next to him and point to the directions and say.  “Well, Joe…. in step one here you were supposed to have found the tympanic membrane.  Did you find it?”.   He shakes his head slowly and I show him on the picture where the structure is and have him point with his probe where it is on the actual frog.   When he nods his head in understanding, I then point to the square on his dissection guide.  “Check the box, Joe, and then move onto number two.”  He complies and gets down to the business of actually dissecting (not dismembering) his frog.  Fifteen minutes later I go back to check on him and he’s doing fine.   Joe was a transfer student, otherwise he might have already been familiar with following directions using the SQUARE technique, but now that he knows the routine, I’m confident that future dissections will result in less dismemberment and more actually learning.

Fast-forward about two months, I received an email from someone who had created (or was in the process of creating) biology videos.  The link to that site was amazing and truly was the kind of thing I had in mind back in September when I first pulled my little camera out of the box.  The site is http://www.leslie-samuel.com/ and it has videos of biology topics, such as cellular respiration, the brain, and photosynthesis.    I’m hoping this site continues to grow and offer the kind of videos I envision that would be great for students learning difficult topics.

1.  Ease of acquiring the materials – most middle schools and most households only have limited access to science type equipment.  You probably won’t find beakers, burettes or graduated cylinders in the average kitchen.

2.  The project should have an obvious dependent and independent variable, the experiment should show that *something* happens.  What happens can then be explained by the student.

3.  The project should be able to be completed in fairly short period of time.  I would suggest no more than two weeks, and for some, you might need something that takes one night, because your student decided to not mention the project until the night before its due (we all know this happens).

Now, you are probably at this page for some of those great ideas for your student (or child).   As these projects often start with a question or a hypothesis, I’ll title each of these ideas as a question and give you a brief description of how you can set it up.  Obviously, you can modify these in different ways and you will need to develop your data tables, and conclusions.

Can a root tell up from down?   Geotropism in Seedlings.

In this project, you will need to get some lima beans from the supermarket, soak them in water for 24 hours to encourage them to germinate.   Place your soaked beans in a glass with a wet paper towel on one side (a petri dish can be substituted if you have access to those).    You will want a few glasses or clear cups so that you can vary the way your bean is oriented.  In 4-5 days, the roots and shoots will appear. It won’t matter which way your bean was placed….the roots will always grow downward, and the shoots will grow upward, a phenomenon called “GEOTROPISM”  – or response to gravity.   You can extend this experiment by flipping your glass after the shoot is growing to see if the root will turn and grow in a new orientation.

Does One Bad Apple Spoil the Whole Bunch?   Fruit Ripening Experiments

When fruit ripens it releases a chemical that can cause a reaction in other fruits.   Place an apple in a baggie and let it ripen until it gets overripe.   Place the overripe apple in a bag full of unripe apples and record data over a few days.  You will need a control in this experiment, so make sure you have another baggie that contains the same unripe apples that are not exposed to the overripe apple.   This experiment will probably receive the best marks if you include lots of  “yucky” pictures of the apples over time.  You can, of course, substitute other fruits.  The analysis should also probably include information about ethylene, which is the chemical that causes the ripening.

Do Fish React to Colors or Shape?  Territorial Behavior in the Betta

This could be a fun experiment if you have the time and resources.  Bettas are those colorful fish you see at the pet shop that are in the tiny little fish bowls.  You can only put one fish in a bowl because two will fight  – in fact, these fish are also called “Japanese Fighting Fish”.   The question asked in the experiment is if the fish only react to other fish (you can put two bowls next to each other and watch for aggressive activity, like puffing up).  Then see if you can get the same sorts of reaction from using “fake” fish.  Try varying your fake fish’s colors and shapes to see if the real fish reacts to one or the other.   Caution:  pet stores often have betta bowls on a shelf next to each other and the fish become desensitized to each other and will not react.  You can fix this by buying two fish and keeping them apart for a few days before you run your tests.

Does Temperature Affect the Breathing Rate of a Goldfish?

This is modified from a lab I do with my freshman biology class.  It’s very simple to perform if you have a goldfish in a beaker (or glass) and a bowl full of ice.  Basically you measure the breathing rate of the fish (it will open and close its mouth) at room temperature and then slowly lower the temperature and count the breaths.  You can raise the temperature of the water bath also, but use caution, goldfish do not tolerate warm temperatures as well as they do cold.   Changing the temperature of the fish too quickly may result in the goldfish death.

What Materials Are The Best Insulators?

This experiment can be used with household materials to see which materials hold heat the best.  Use foam from pillows, down feathers, cotton, polyester or any other materials you can scrounge up.   Take a glass of water and a thermometer and place in a bowl or other container.  Add ice to the other container to lower the temperature of the water in your glass.   Now compare how quickly the temperature changes if you insulate your glass with cotton or other materials.  You may need to get creative with your design to keep your materials from getting soaked (try plastic) from the ice.