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High school Science labs
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We have not been great at doing labs for high school science. My oldest is now in 11th and he’s done very few. We live in a place (non-US) where lab science isn’t really required for college, or at least no one will check up on us or care, and he isn’t interested in a science career. Right now he is thinking about becoming an electrician. No science required.
So should I worry about labs at all? What is the point of high school labs if you don’t pursue science as a career? If there is something important there to know, then maybe we could cover it at some point in a different way. Or I could get my act together and have him do some actual lab work.
He’s doing a few from the Chemistry 101 DVD this year, but frankly, a lot of them are lame.
If we weren’t required to do labs, and my student wasn’t interested, I would probably do some from The Illustrated Guide to Home Biology Experiments and the chemistry one, Friendly Chemistry labs because they are cooking, and watch labs on YouTube.
This year my biology student is watching labs weekly from a DVD and writing up lab reports on it. This summer we will add dissections and a few other labs.
When you say he’s interested in being an electrician, no science needed, I immediately thought, what?? Wait a minute. Isn’t electricity the study of physical science and if solar power is an interest, there’s that too? If he doesn’t have to have labs to graduate , and you feel like he needs one, why not choose something in his interest area that could be helpful for his technical training ? I realized this year that one key to requiring labs for high schoolers is giving them experience in careful measuring and recording of data and following precise directions, regardless of the area of science. (personally I think kids capable of following/multiplying a good recipe in the kitchen exhibit these skills) . Blessings to you and yours as you figure out the best path.
Yeah, I know. That is a bit of a contradiction, but he is not required to have any science to get into the Electrical Technology programs I’ve been looking at, except for “Grade 10 Science” (whatever that means, but it probably includes physical science which he did in Grade 8).
He does have one coming up in chemistry where he’ll make a lemon battery, so that sort of goes along with his interests, but that’s not really a true experiment; more like a project.
The other thing I have considered is a family science fair, where each kid dedicates a week or two to one science project or experiment. That would be different.
ETA: This kid is my baker, so he definitely knows how to follow directions, etc.
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