Standard 6: Science Safety, Legal Issues, and Ethical Treatment of Animals
Candidates will demonstrate knowledge and effective practice as related to legal issues, science safety, and the ethical treatment of living organisms. This assessment will require candidates to develop and implement a science safety plan for their student teaching internship.
Evidence:
Classroom Management Plan and Science Safety Contract
Reflection:
My number one responsibility as a science teacher each and every day is to ensure the safety and welfare of my students in both the classroom and laboratory setting. Classroom management is important for several reasons, but I see the largest as being tied to the safety of students. Through classroom management, the classroom provides an important opportunity for students to practice following a set of reasonable expectations and rules. Given this practice when students enter the laboratory setting they are accustomed to following an outline of practices and procedures. There are many acceptable styles of classroom management, but a key feature of each is to ensure a level of respect in the classroom that acts to protect the safety of the students.
My classroom management plan focuses heavily on an insistence on non-verbal communication when appropriate. I have constantly seen, either when leading a class or observing one, that ignoring this aspects of classroom management can lead to a huge and unnecessary waste of instructional time. In an inquiry based classroom I am always thrilled to hear the right kind of questions from my students, but I have to insist that they preface the questions by raising their hands. By insisting on this small measure, a huge amount of time is saved by avoiding untimely interruptions.
The management plan also emphasizes being prepared. It is another source of wasted time to wait for students to find or borrow materials. I tried to keep the list short and reasonable limiting the materials to ones that would be used each day. By holding students responsible for these supplies the time loss between transitions in a lesson are minimalized.
The safety plan focuses on an awareness of the laboratory and clearly communicating incidents and potential incidents to the instructor immediately. It is hard to predict every possible thing that can go wrong in any given demonstration or experiment, but it is possible to make students aware that they can and should communicate openly with you if there is even a possibility of a danger in the lab. It is important to model to the student of what signs they should be looking for and what safety concerns they should be thinking about before each lab. Having these rules and procedures posted around the classroom can serve as a constant reminder to students as to what is expected of them.
My safety plan does not directly address the ethical treatment of animals. This is excluded because I do not see a potential scenario where I would use animals in the physics laboratory. Any potential benefit is to me, not worth the additional concerns and guidelines.
Evidence:
Classroom Management Plan and Science Safety Contract
Reflection:
My number one responsibility as a science teacher each and every day is to ensure the safety and welfare of my students in both the classroom and laboratory setting. Classroom management is important for several reasons, but I see the largest as being tied to the safety of students. Through classroom management, the classroom provides an important opportunity for students to practice following a set of reasonable expectations and rules. Given this practice when students enter the laboratory setting they are accustomed to following an outline of practices and procedures. There are many acceptable styles of classroom management, but a key feature of each is to ensure a level of respect in the classroom that acts to protect the safety of the students.
My classroom management plan focuses heavily on an insistence on non-verbal communication when appropriate. I have constantly seen, either when leading a class or observing one, that ignoring this aspects of classroom management can lead to a huge and unnecessary waste of instructional time. In an inquiry based classroom I am always thrilled to hear the right kind of questions from my students, but I have to insist that they preface the questions by raising their hands. By insisting on this small measure, a huge amount of time is saved by avoiding untimely interruptions.
The management plan also emphasizes being prepared. It is another source of wasted time to wait for students to find or borrow materials. I tried to keep the list short and reasonable limiting the materials to ones that would be used each day. By holding students responsible for these supplies the time loss between transitions in a lesson are minimalized.
The safety plan focuses on an awareness of the laboratory and clearly communicating incidents and potential incidents to the instructor immediately. It is hard to predict every possible thing that can go wrong in any given demonstration or experiment, but it is possible to make students aware that they can and should communicate openly with you if there is even a possibility of a danger in the lab. It is important to model to the student of what signs they should be looking for and what safety concerns they should be thinking about before each lab. Having these rules and procedures posted around the classroom can serve as a constant reminder to students as to what is expected of them.
My safety plan does not directly address the ethical treatment of animals. This is excluded because I do not see a potential scenario where I would use animals in the physics laboratory. Any potential benefit is to me, not worth the additional concerns and guidelines.