CLASS GROUP WORK AND LAB EXPECTIONS
Group work is a fact of life in 6th grade science. Besides teaching the students group interactions it allows students to look at laboratory work from different perspectives. Students will be assigned groups in many different styles including teacher selection, student selection, computer selection and random chance. While students are expected to work in groups, a student's grade is not directly tied to that group. A students grade is based on the final lab write up they turn in and how the student performed individually in the lab group. Group work can sometimes be a challenge but it is the student's responsibility to make reasonable efforts to get along within that group. Groups in science should be looked at as a resource but not as the ultimate determiner of a student's grade that still will fall upon the individual student.
In challenge science group work will be a requirement not only on labs but on several major class projects as well. Challenge science will also require that group members share compiled data to produce graphs and look at multiple tested variables of other group members.
Lab work in middle school can and will be an exciting thing for all students. Students are expected to follow clearly defined behavioral expectations during lab times. This is for the safety of all students in the classroom. If a student proves to have an inability to conduct themselves in a lab environment they may be asked to leave the class and complete an alternative assignment, equal to the value of the lab. Students will be expected to follow the rules outlined in the Rockwood laboratory safety contract. Students will be assigned immediate lunch detentions for any infraction of safety rules.
LAB WORK IS FUN, BUT SAFETY MUST COME FIRST