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I teach science and would never dream of doing a full blown
science experiment every day. When do the students actually learn
the concepts and material which they should be applying when they
do experiments? I don't believe in throwing students into
experiments for the sole purpose of discovery learning at a fifth
grade level. For me, personally, I incorporate mini-hands on
experiences about two or three days a week. These are woven into
the lesson as I teach. Every now and then I may have a full
blown lab that sometimes takes one or two days to complete, with a
full write up. For the mini-experiences the students only do a
partial write up to include a hypothesis, record of their
observation and then maybe a one or two sentence statement about
what they learned. Doing hands on science every day, in my
opinion, results in the kids arriving at class all wound up and
thinking that they are going to play instead of learn. It just
isn't my style, but that doesn't mean someone else can't make it
work. Also, just to let you know, there is a science chatline on
this board and you might get some good feedback there as well.

On 7/10/14, Chuck wrote:
> By "full blown" I'm referring to a scientific experiment using
> the scientific method which each student documents and has
> hands-on participation.
>
> Currently we do this in groups of four for logistic purposes.
> The challenge is doing it daily...do you folks do a hands on
> experiment daily? Do you do a teacher demonstration instead?
> How often?
>
> I'm not trying to cut corners I'm just trying to find out the
> most effective way to do this. We have two 5th grade teachers
> and 60 kids. I'm finding daily setup and prep, in addition to
> other preps challenging and was thinking if there is a better
> way to do this?
>
> Thanks
>
> Chuck

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