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Hello Devon,
The labs you perform depend on the grade level and the topics you teach but you can modify many hands-on activities to fit almost any grade. I believe biology becomes much more intriguing for students by incorporating as many labs as possible.
Not all labs require formal lab reports or quantitative analysis. Exploring slides through a microscope or recording observations of living organisms can all be considered “labs”. I feel it is good to vary your assessments to suit the activity. Quick observation labs may be followed up with worksheets. Long-term projects like growing plants are well-suited to journaling. I preferred paragraph answers that fostered higher-order thinking skills and promoted literacy, challenged students to sum up observations, make conclusions or connect topics. It is also reduced copying! Presentations are also good assessments.
My favourites hands-on biology activities are:
DNA Extraction:
Students isolate DNA from crushed strawberries. The students were awed by the length and amount of DNA. Simple, easy to get supplies.
Pop bottle ecosystem:
A long-term project in which students create enclosed terraria and observe them over weeks. I have a collection of resources in the Learning Center you can use: http://bit.ly/PopBottleEcosystems
Living organisms:
Just raising plants in class from seeds are excellent, long-term projects in which you explore life-cycles, requirements for growth, tropisms, and more. Start a garden in the school yard and observe over several weeks/months.
Insects, worms, pond aquariums can be well used. (Refer to a previous post about this: https://learningcenter.nsta.org/discuss/default.aspx?tid=mKMWu1JS/Us_E#87520
Dissections: (check with your department head or administration first)
Always fascinating to students and good for discussing ethical, scientific use of animals: Molluscs, squid, fish, and crabs can all be obtained from grocery stores rather than purchasing preserved ones. Fetal pigs are always a hit. Completely fascinating are 'plucks' - lungs and heart from pigs: we can get them free or very cheaply at local packing plants. Don’t forget about plants, flowers, fruits and vegetables as dissection specimens.
Ecological Studies:
Conduct surveys of the school yard with small quadrats made from soda-straws. Run transects, identify species, estimate biomass and write a report on what was discovered and assess the conditions of the yard.
Hope this helps!
Gabe Kraljevic
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