Teaching Effective Problem-Based Lab Reports

In partnership with Model Teaching, an industry leader in supporting educators, in this course, you will analyze problem-based learning (PBL) science activities and how you can support students in creating a lab report that follows a scientific method. Model Teaching's Mission is to improve student performance by directly supporting teachers with quality content and resources. The lab report structure you help your students follow will help guide and enhance scientific investigations in your lessons and will improve scientific thinking in your students.

3 Months / 1 Course Hrs

Open Enrollment

Offered in partnership with your preferred school

Baylor University

Change School

Learning method

Self-Guided

$44 $50 12% off

No instructor. Study on your own schedule

Enroll Now

Details + Objectives

Course code: T14712

This teacher professional development course will teach you how problem-based learning (PBL), also called problem-based education, can be used as the basis for engaging lab experiments in your science classroom. Through a standardized lab report format, you can plan for lab activities that teach a scientific method to your students and assist them in developing their critical thinking skills. The course will equip you with the necessary tools to utilize structured scientific investigations to support student learning through a lab report template that you will use in upcoming lessons.

The course also comes with a downloadable PDF of the course content and a "walk through the lab report" resource, and a lab report template with a sample that you can provide to students for science investigations.

What you will learn

Analyze components of a problem-based science activity in the classroom
Evaluate how to use a lab report template to support problem-based experiments
Review each component of a lab report and compare how it aligns with a scientific method
Build a plan for an upcoming science investigation using the lab report structure from this course

How you will benefit

Your planned science and lab activities will become more engaging and relevant to your students
Your students will interact with your lesson activities through more complex science investigations, discourse among students, and analysis of data that can be used to draw conclusions
Your students will understand content better from you consistently using the lab report template during science investigations, leading to improved assessment results

How the course is taught

Self-Guided, online course
3 Months access
1 course hours

Outline

Effective Lab Reports Course Content
1. The video and article will provide you with an understanding of problem-based learning in science, how lab activities should be structured to follow a scientific method, and components of the lab report that allows students to fully interact with science investigations. The course also includes some "Reflect or Discuss" prompts to help you connect with the course content and ends with a "Try This Task" to guide you explicitly on how you might implement the ideas into the classroom.
Quiz
1. You will answer questions related to lab reports and a scientific method. Quizzes are automatically scored and provide feedback on answer choice rationale.
Implementation Reflection
1. The reflection prompt requires you to plan for use of the "try this task" by either reflecting on the content yourself or discussing them with the colleague. You will then discuss a new concept you can attempt to implement in the future based on something you learned in the course.
Considerations for Implementation
1. This short statement helps you reflect on your ideas and assess whether you might be successful in your implementation.
Videos and Further Reading
1. Additional content suggestions are provided to enhance and expand your understanding of problem-based science activities.

Instructors & Support

Self-Study

Requirements

Prerequisites:

There are no prerequisites to take this course.

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

Software Requirements:

PC: Windows 10 or later.
Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox is preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
Microsoft Word Online
Editing of a Microsoft Word document is required in this course. You may use a free version of Microsoft Word Online, or Google Docs if you do not have Microsoft Office installed on your computer. Model Teaching can provide support for this.
Adobe Acrobat Reader
Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

FAQ

Your course begins immediately after you enroll.

You have 3 months of access to the course. After enrolling, you can learn and complete the course at your own pace, within the allotted access period. You will have the opportunity to interact with other students in the online discussion area.

There is no time limit to complete each lesson, other than completing all lessons within the allotted access period. Discussion areas for each lesson are open for the entire duration of the course.

Because this course is self-guided, no extensions will be granted after the start of your enrollment.

Teaching Effective Problem-Based Lab Reports

Baylor University