Mici's+Opportunity+for+Change

There are many hurdles to overcome before this implementation will become successful. Currently, biology teachers do not collaborate and PLC meetings usually end with one veteran teacher passing out a handout for the rest of the teachers to follow amid complaints of student performance. There is also a faction in the building I work with and the adjoining science building regarding the distribution of lab supplies. Before teachers overcome their fear of students destroying the equipment, they must first overcome their own hesitation at loaning other teachers science equipment. If this change is successful, teachers will use computers to promote inquiry based labs in the classroom. Collaboration of lesson plans via the laptops will take place and overall teacher cohesion will increase. In order to successfully implement this strategy however I will need to first obtain funding for the laptops, work will colleagues to choose a group of labs to complete on the laptops and finally assist teachers in implementing these labs. By offering some dissections via the laptops, monies can also be freed up to purchase equipment for the entire department to use such as quality microscopes, a stereomicroscope with attachments to a projector, and a gel electrophoresis machine.
 * The opportunity for change**: I work with a very mature group of colleagues whom are reluctant to embrace technology. While working as a staff developer in technology last year I witnessed this first hand. Teachers are afraid to use technology of fear of student’s destroying equipment, loss of control and fear of deviation from their standard lesson practice. As our state budget continues to get tighter, our ability to obtain monies for lab equipment will become more and more scarce. Although wet labs are a requirement for college accreditation, very few are offered beyond dissections. For example, with the exception of AP biology, biology teachers in our department spend roughly 90% of their budget on the dissection of animals. Unfortunately, this leads little room for lab experiences in other areas such as biochemistry and DNA analysis. At the same time there is a push in science for more inquiry based programs. In inquiry science, students come up with questions and form hypothesis to test in the lab. The current department expenditures do not allow for this and although there is some talk from our department head regarding obtaining a class set of laptops, this has not come to fruition. My hope is to work with my colleagues in biology to construct how inquiry based labs can be implemented in the classroom.