Science Teaching Insights: A Laboratory Aide Training Program

Abstract

Claudia T. Melear has been a biology teacher at M.D. Collins High School, College Park, GA 30349 since 1978, teaching science, particularly biology, to gifted students. She received her A.A. degree from Clayton junior College and her B.S. degree with honors in biology from Georgia State University, and is presently enrolled in the M.ED. Graduate Program in Science Education for the Gifted at Georgia State. Melear has led several teacher and student visitations to the Georgia Barrier Islands over the past five years and feels a special commitment to educating people about the islands and preserving them. Her other special interest is in student science project work. In the last two years, three of her students have placed in the top five of students participating in the U.S. Army Science and Humanities Symposium. Melear was named Fulton County Teacher of the Year (1982), Star Teacher (1982), and was no.minated for Science Teacher of the Year in Georgia in 1983. Teachers frequently feel overburdened by the amount of outside preparation' required for their classes, week after week. Science teachers especially are prone to this feeling because of the added responsibility of laboratory work. Lab preparation is one of the most time-consuming parts of a science teacher's job; as Leonard (1981) so graphically pointed out, it can be true drudgery. Usually laboratory preparation for any science class is done before or after school, making an extra long day for the instructor. Laboratory work in a biology classroom also may include preparation and maintenance of specimen collections. Preparing new lab assignments, updating old ones, and completing the required typing or printing chores seem to be endless tasks but necessary to improve the laboratory experience for each succeeding class. Many schools provide no paraprofessional helpers to assist in completing such responsibilities. The use of student or teaching assistants in science courses at the college level is well documented. Manteuffel and Von Blum (1979) described a model for training teaching assistants (TAs) for college biology. Other authors have written extensively about training or improving student TAs (Clark and McLean 1979; Renfrew and Moeller 1979; Dykstra and Gelder 1982; Moll and Allen 1982; Friedrich and Powell 1979). Hardy and Morris (1978) have used undergraduate students as liaisons to improve teacher effectiveness. King and Ullmann (1978) report that support services in 55 college chemistry departments vary from using student laboratory aides as teaching or research assistants to utilizing them as bottle washers. Thus, there is widespread use of student help at the college level. Generally, college-level teaching assistants receive compensation for their work. Instances of secondary school students becoming competently trained laboratory assistants have not been reported in the literature. However, I have found that preparations, museum upkeep, typing tasks, and various other chores may be accomplished by willing secondary students. The interest shown by students in assisting in all aspects of laboratory work in our high school has led to the design of a course which offers elective credit to the student and provides important benefits for classroom teachers. These benefits include a reduction in the time spent in laboratory-related tasks and the availability of trained help. In my five years as a high school biology teacher, I have encountered students who were eager to learn and to do more than just routine assigned work. These students responded positively to laboratory experiences. Many of them offered to come early to work in the laboratory or to help in preparation for class. These highly motivated student volunteers had achievement scores which ranged from low-average to gifted.