🚀 go-pugleaf

Simply put, I am unhappy with my kids and my method for setting up and
executing labs.  I do not have a separate lab area, so the tables the
kids sit at are used for labs, too.  I leave something set up for two
days (due to block scheduling), and when the kids walk in, there are a
few kids who can't help but mess with everything, including stuff on MY
desk, presumably because they just can't resist (tactile-kinesthetic and
all that).  It messes up my layout at times, and it threatens that some
parts may be broken from misuse even before a lab starts!  Even when
things go well, kids are not careful, despite warnings of all types.

Some materials HAVE been damaged over the year, and the quandary I am in
is that usually there is no way to know just which ONE kid did it.
Either before, during, or after labs, kids are interested in doing all
sorts of stuff with the lab equipment.

(1) Have any of you found it workable to collect a lab fee in high school
physics courses?

(2) How do you handle equipment damage control in classes?

(3) How do you make kids pay when you KNOW they did it?  (It may or may
not have been malicious, but the kid is definitely guilty.)

(4) Do you ever give kids zeroes for labs for bad behavior?  Do you ever
ban a kid from labwork because of previous problems?

(5) How do you handle a classroom/labroom situation like mine?  I think
kids would be better if they were in a "special" room, but no such luck.

If you feel your response does not belong on the list on which this note
is posted, would you please respond to me directly?  Thank you.

Keith Tipton        : If ignorance is bliss,
kctipton@tenet.edu  : why aren't more people happy?
Houston, Texas      : -->author unknown