The Circuit of Inquiries, the first lesson in Energy, Machines, and Motion, is a major challenge in classroom logistics. Working in teams, students rotate among 8 stations and perform various simple tasks as directed by instruction cards and their worksheet packet.
Some classes will handle this type of thing just fine, but others will take forever, mill about, and seem to get nothing done. I just finished my third full day on this lab, and we’re still nowhere near finished.
Today I started class by doing the graphing section (1.4?) together on the overhead, since no one had noticed that station (the only manipulative is a ruler - not too exciting). We didn’t get very far due to some unrelated behavior issues, but I think they got the idea. Of course, this lesson is designed to be a preassessment, so I may have subverted that purpose.
Some ideas to make this lesson flow smoothly:
- Clearly label the stations
- Assign specific groups to specific stations (this can take awhile, so it pays to be organized)
- Use a timer to specify how much time students have to complete each station, then rotate when the timer goes off
- Specify the order in which students will visit the stations, lest they mill about according to whim (whim being a rather non-productive kind of thing)
- Offer a whole-class reward if students finish quickly and in an orderly manner, while still doing a good job
If you only have one class doing this lesson, you may want to have students set up the stations. If you do this (as I did), I recommend having students sit down again after setup for a re-briefing before actually beginning, so there is more structure for the lab-completion portion.