We've all been there. You've spent hours preparing, thinking through, mixing chemicals, laying out labware, explaining to students. All to have the lab flop. The data doesn't work. The precipitate doesn't form. The color doesn't change. The yield is 2%. It feels like a giant waste of time. And it could be, if you don't make the best of a bad situation.
I've been thinking about this because a lab that I wrote sucked this week. It didn't go well. I spent more time cleaning up broken glass, troubleshooting faulty electrical equipment, and explaining aberrant data than I did teaching content. It was frustrating and exhausting. So I am writing this blog for some self therapy. Maybe it will help you too. Here are some things to do when your lab just plain sucks.
1. Write it down.
I am not a natural journaler, calendar creator, or an organized person at all. When I come up against an issue in a lab, I really need to write it down right now. I open the file, make the change on the instructions immediately. If you wait, the chances of you remembering the small details next year decrease a lot.
2. Be transparent.
I suppose all of us like the idea of being the smartest person in the room. The one with the answers. The person who always knows the path. But we aren’t. When a lab goes sideways, tell the students. Be up front about the issues that are going on. Continue to build a classroom culture of striving. It’s OK to explain to students that you are bummed about results. It’s OK to be frustrated that it didn’t go your way. But don’t hide that from the students. As you become a more real person in the classroom, the students will buy more into you. And fake doesn’t earn real fans.
3. Involve the students.
After expressing frustration, don’t let it end the lab. Engage the students. Ask them why they think the results didn’t work. Involve them in brainstorming ways to make it better for next period. It is the problem-solving mindset that will cause the students to grow. If they are simply told to follow the instructions until they are done, they might not be engaging the deeper parts of their mind. But when faced with real world problems in real time they get to probe their understanding and grow.
4. Don’t be afraid to throw out data.
Sometimes the data destroys the lesson you are trying to teach. I use a lot of competition in the lab. Frequently the best grades will go to the groups with the best data. I really like doing that. It improves their attention to detail. It helps them focus on error analysis. It makes it more exciting when they share their data. But sometimes the data is a hot mess. There are no winners. Throw out the data. Or select a little data from this group and other data from that group. Post it on the board and let them analyze as a single unit.
5. Make the whole class a lab group for redo’s.
Occasionally there is a real quantifiable issue in the lab. And when we find it, we can fix it. I also generally find those issues later in the lab period. There isn’t enough time redo the whole thing for each lab group. This is where you can split up the class and make them into one giant lab group. One group collects data point one and a different group collects point two. By the end of the remainder of the class you might be able to collect a classroom full of data.
6. Don’t be afraid to roll it into tomorrow.
Labs can run long. Issues can slow down progress. Don’t be afraid to tell students that we will collect data today and analyze tomorrow. Does that mess up your calendar? Yep. Does it allow the students to have enough time to really engage with the experiment and the data? Also yep. The students’ understanding is more important than white-out on your calendar.
7. Remove problematic steps.
If there is one step in the lab that is causing all the issues, decide if you can cut it out. I did this yesterday. We had six data points to collect on melting point. One of them wasn’t working right. I don’t know why, it just didn’t. So I threw it out. They did five out of the six steps and when they return to analyze the data, they will be none the worse for wear.
8. Give yourself a freaking break.
You get the honor and privilege of teaching a hard subject. It’s honestly why I love it. The English department doesn’t have to worry about percent yield, or impurities, or equilibria that just won’t equilibriate. They have their own worries. But it’s different. Give yourself a break. Laugh at yourself. Laugh at the situation. Love your students. Give them the best experience possible with the best preparation you can provide. But when it’s bad, it’s just bad. So laugh a little. And go grab the broom, dustpan and broken glass container. It’s just one of those days.
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