Handbook Table of Contents > Teaching Methods > Supervising the Experiment
Indiana University Teaching Handbook
Teaching Methods
Supervising the Experiment
At the beginning of the lab, review the purposes and procedures of the experiment. You might deliver a brief introduction explaining how the experiment relates to current developments in the discipline, or you might discuss the students’ statements of objectives. Ask for questions, clarify any ambiguities in the lab manual, and demonstrate special procedures now rather than interrupting the experiment later.
If both you and your students are well prepared, you will be free to perform your most important role, that of guiding the students’ development. Try to talk with each student at least once during the experiment. Technical and procedural matters can be handled quickly in a few words of advice or a very brief demonstration. However, your primary role is to help students master the steps of scientific inquiry—recognizing and stating a problem so that it can be explored, collecting data, forming and testing an hypothesis, and drawing a conclusion.
Helping students master each step is not an easy task. The “11 steps of guided design” provide a good approach to problem solving:
- identify the problem,
- state the problem objective,
- list constraints, assumptions, and facts,
- generate possible solutions,
- determine the most likely solution,
- analyze the solution,
- synthesize the solution,
- evaluate the solution,
- prepare a report,
- implement the plan,
- check results.
The sequence is designed to provide a clear process for thinking through the complexities of real problems (Wales and Stager, 1977).
Refrain from Giving Outright Answers or Advice
If lab partners ask, “Why can’t we get this to come out right?” try asking them a series of questions which leads them to discover the reasons for themselves rather than simply explaining why the experiment failed. Of course sometimes the reason will be relatively simple (“You used hydrochloric instead of nitric acid.”), but just as often the reason will be more substantial—a matter of timing, sequence, proportion, or interpretation. Perhaps the student had the necessary data but has overlooked an important step in analyzing the results or is unable to synthesize a solution.
It’s very tempting to help students by saying, “Aha! I see where you went wrong,” but unless you resist the temptation, they are likely to falter at the same stage in the next experiment. Students may become frustrated if they can’t get a straight answer out of you, but they will also learn more.
