Australia's Science Forum

Just wondering how much notice you ask your teachers to give you for EEIs?
Do you stick to the usual 48hours as for pracs, or do you have a different set timeframe for EEIs?

I ask for minimum 2 working days notice for the original order from the students but after that they can order refills etc at the end of the lesson for the next lesson. I need longer if I need to order in things or grow seedling etc.

agregory wrote:Just wondering how much notice you ask your teachers to give you for EEIs?
Do you stick to the usual 48hours as for pracs, or do you have a different set timeframe for EEIs?

I prefer longer because:

(1) EEI often have rather unique requirements that take time to find, order, or negotiate substitutes. These, at least, need to be requested as early as possible in the term.

(2) It takes longer to prepare six individual experiments than it does for six groups of the same experiment. Getting the completed requests in with a little extra notice is appreciated.

Thanks everyone. I agree, more than 48 hours is required due to the individual requirements for each person or group. Trying to work out a process going forward to meet teacher, student and labbies expectations so that it all works smoothly.

It takes longer to prepare six individual experiments than it does for six groups of the same experiment.

6? Try 30! Usually by the end of it I need a holiday! Lol

Yep, we have 45+ individual or 20+ group EEIs.......

For the first 3 weeks of each year all Year 10 students do EEI (here we call them their Projects)
That is about 200 individual projects AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
It is a real drain on resources and I never get everything back.
I wouldn't mind so much is some of them had a real scientific basis,
This year one girl was allowed to do
" how many times do you have to turn around before you get so giddy you can't walk a straight line!" How on earth could she get accurate results. what were her variables etc.

It is bedlam doing them.
Usually they give me a list a day or so earlier but sometimes the teachers send the kids down to me during the lesson to get the equipment they want.
We supply scientific equipment but if they are doing something like testing stain removers they have to but them selves.

We discuss a few weeks before hand what kind of things they are likely to do. Most of our EEI's are quite directed and so are fairly similar each year. Anything that needs to be ordered they try and get from the students as early as possible i.e. enzymes, get them to choose which enzyme then design their experiment afterwards. Everything else will be quite short notice, 2 days ish. We've been doing the same ones for a few years now and I'm fairly on top of it most years but the enzyme ones drive me insane! They usually involve buffers, different strength starch solutions and different strength enzyme solutions and loads of uristix! The students never order enough, or change their minds without telling me so use someone else's solutions. I'll make up what they ask for but then they only use one buffer for one lesson and another buffer for the next lesson so I never seem to have the right ones there!
Half way through last year I designed a new form for them to fill in each lesson for the next one. So at the beginning they do a full request (similar to the teachers booking form) then each lesson request what they need for the next one.

Thanks for that! Great ideas.
We find students never order enough and we are always playing catchup. Or they don't like sharing and keep it all for themselves or use other people's stuff!

Does anyone make up bulk sucrose or NaCl solutions at a stock % and get the student's to do their own dilutions?

Similar to you Nicky, we get the kids to fill in an 'apparatus sheet' , in an attempt to get them to think about what they plan to do & figure out exactly what they'll need......of course there are still the usual changes of mind/pinching someone elses gear etc so I don't think there's any foolproof way of resourcing individual projects!

Thanks everyone! EEI Prac Order form is a goer!