Lab Management in my biology classroom

This post is about how to efficiently organize student labs in a Bio Classroom.  Everything always goes smoother when you do "proper prior planning"!  Read on or watch my Youtube video below to see how I do it:

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​Each student has a lab folder which is labeled with their name, ID #, the school year, and period they are in biology.  Both sides of each folder has a list of the year's labs pre-printed for easy check-off after student submission. I store the folders in a closet and only remove them to file completed labs.

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​As labs are completed, I hang them on the wall for display.  The benefits of doing this are that students can see the amount of work the class has accomplished, and also, for students to see what each lab looks like, in case they need to locate one they did not submit.  ​

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​When each quarter is complete I move the strip of displayed labs to another wall & hang the following quarter's labs in its place. 

When students are absent from class I often put whatever assignment or lab we are doing that day in their separate classroom folder.  If a student ever misplaces a lab I keep spares labeled and stored in a hanging file drawer.

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​All student lab grades are entered as they are completed.  Each bio period's lab grades are coded with the same color in my electronic grade book.  

The year's lab folder lists are available here.  The list corresponds to the 40 labs which you can find in my book 40 Biology Lab Activities available here or on Amazon.

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Prior planning makes student lab management easier.  It's all about the "7 Ps"!

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