Suggestion One

It takes time to learn your limits and tolerances. Sometimes
years.... I know OUCH! The cool thing about teaching is you
get to try it all over again next year and run it differently.

Suggestion 2

You are not their friend but you can be friendly. It is OK to
boot loud students out of the room after a warning. Be
consistent and fair and start early in the year as in the
first lab. Trust me most the other students are usually happy
and the slacker/talker usually gets on board at some point.

Suggestion 3

I never let students pick their lab partners. The noise level
is always louder. I shuffle a set of index cards with their
names and assign groups as I move around the lab area. Yes
sometimes I fix you works with who. They do not know and it is
good to be the King!

Suggestion 4

Explain to them that it is way easier to run off massive
amounts of worksheets rather than set up a lab. Be quiet and
efficient and the labs will continue.

Suggestion 5 - Try this it works!

On a random schedule I collect one lab report (for the group)
and either grade it as homework, quiz or test points. Everyone
in the group gets the same grade. Everyone in the group must
have a lab report/data and I then randomly select one paper
for the group. Shuffle them up and pick one! If the one I
select is incomplete or not done at all the whole group gets
the failing grade. Oh well, do the work, cooperate and finish
the task and your group has nothing to worry about. This keeps
the passive partner or slacker/talker partner from ruining the
group time. They stay on the task.

Suggestion 6

Sometimes you just get a weird talkie group and I have no
answers for that. Seems to happen about every 8 years for me!
Uh oh next year is year 8

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