Five Ways to Make Science Labs More Attractive for Students
If you teach high school biology, then you’re already aware of how fun and exciting this topic can be. However, teenagers aren’t typically interested in science, and creating some custom biology experiments for high school can be a great way to make learning biology more exciting. You can also enhance the interest of your students by making your science lab more attractive. Here is an overview of five smart ways to make your science lab more appealing to your students.
Focus on Adding Color and More Attractive Decor
A science lab that is painted with drab colors that look more appropriate for a prison isn’t appealing to anyone, especially high school students. Teens have a tendency to get bored quite easily, but vibrant colors and the right decor can turn their boredom into renewed interest. While it doesn’t matter what colors you choose, ensuring that the colors are bright and eye-catching is essential. Also, some refreshing decor can make a huge difference, so as you’re shopping for decor, ask your students for their input. They would love to help decorate the science lab.
Ensure There is Natural Lighting Available
Teens love being outdoors but doing experiments in labs are typically indoors. If your budget allows, a more interactive biology lab can work wonders for engaging your students. Ensuring that you upgrade at least one of the windows in the lab so it will allow natural sunlight to pour in can make a big difference to your students, which can increase their level of interest. A skylight would be an even more effective way of allowing in natural sunlight.
Make Your Lab More Interactive
Since students are likely to become bored easily, ensuring that you’re keeping them engaged is important. Nothing will keep your students more engaged than an interactive lab that enables them to constantly participate in hands-on experiments. Instead of sitting there listening to you giving a lecture for 30 minutes before they can start their experiments, keeping your lecture time to a minimum can keep your students more interested. Allow them to collect all the supplies and equipment necessary for each experiment, as well, instead of having it all set out for them. This can make the difference between your students becoming bored and remaining engaged.
Get Some Cool Gadgets
Every teen likes doodads and gadgets, so if you get some cool ones to display in and around your lab, you might really capture their interest. The sky is the limit when it comes to the gadgets you can choose, but just be sure that the life-size neurons, atoms, and other gadgets that you decide to get are durable, because your students will undoubtedly want to look at, touch and feel them.
Ensuring Safety
Ensuring the safety of yourself and your students should be at the top of your list and performing experiments in a lab can seem scary and intimidating to some students. If you install fume gates in the classroom/lab, which would be helpful in the event of heavy fumes being emitted from an experiment that could lead to respiratory distress, fume gates can be very effective. In order to convince the school that the fume gates are necessary, provide them with as much information about them as possible.
So, if you’re looking for ways to make science labs more attractive for students, then you’re on the right track. Many students don’t realize how much fun they can have learning about science while performing various science experiments. You will need to find a store that sells all the supplies and equipment you’ll need to transform your lab. Contact Modern Biology, or visit their website, as they have a tremendous amount of equipment, supplies, lab planning guides and much more, which can help you make your lab amazing.