For the past few issues, we have been focusing on the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards. This month, we look at the Computational Thinker standard. Its performance indicators require students to use technology-assisted methods to explore and find solutions; collect data, use digital tools to analyze them, and represent data in various ways; break problems into parts and develop models to facilitate problem-solving; and understand how automation works and use algorithmic thinking (ISTE 2016).

Working with data
Students need to become adept at collecting data, typically during labs in which they may be asked to fill in data tables. In co-author Ben Smith’s class, students would compile their data on spreadsheets, learning how to make calculations, graph and chart data, conduct analyses, and solve problems. Students can share data through a Google Form.

Further, students can learn how asking the right questions will lead to the data they desire. Initially, the questions could involve simple research such as the number of siblings, favorite color, height, or age. Data sets in Google Sheets can be used to analyze the class’s results and help students become more familiar with the data-manipulation tools. Questions on Google Forms can even require data validation, which ensures that each response meets the stated requirements.

Automating calculations in a spreadsheet or Google Sheet can find averages, sums, and data counts. Creating graphs, linear regressions, and histograms can help students make predictions and analyses that accompany each data set. Google Add-ons are tools that provide more functionality to the Sheets app.

Students should be able to use online tools (www.data.gov, www.opendatanetwork.com, and http://aws.amazon.com/datasets) to import a large data set into a spreadsheet for further analysis. This teaches about the importance of multiple trials involved in collecting large data sets. Teachers may have students work on a part of an experiment and then share their data with the class through a classwide Google Form.

On Google Trends, you can enter search terms that will yield results broken down by searches over time, by region, and by related queries. Students can use the tool to find when the next flu epidemic may be coming based on searched terms. When a second term is added to the query, students can see correlations between data sets. Searching the terms tsunami and earthquake, for instance, reveals a correlation between the two. To evidence their learning, students can first examine online infographics (e.g., www.kidsdiscover.com/infographics, www.livescience.com/infographics), and then use online tools to create infographics of their own (e.g., http://piktochart.com, https://www.easel.ly)

Students can use algorithmic thinking to learn to solve problems that lead to automated solutions. Ask students to map steps they will take in solving the problem. A concept mapping tool (such as LucidChart, MindMaps, or Popplet) allows students to create a flowchart or a decision tree to sequence the events needed to complete the solution. Additionally, Code.org has a number of activities that teachers and students can use to learn about algorithmic thinking.

Conclusion
The Computational Thinker can collect, present, and analyze data while working through a strategic solution.

Ben Smith (ben@edtechinnovators.com) is an educational technology program specialist, and Jared Mader (jared@edtechinnovators.com) is the director of educational technology, for the Lincoln Intermediate Unit in New Oxford, Pennsylvania. They conduct teacher workshops on technology in the classroom nationwide.

Reference
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). 2016. The 2016 ISTE standards for students. Arlington, VA: ISTE. http://bit.ly/ISTE-standards

Editor’s Note

This article was originally published in the February 2017 issue of The Science Teacher journal from the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA).

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DCIs Develop Across Time

The first two blogs in my series on disciplinary core ideas (DCIs) focused on how DCIs form a conceptual framework and that DCIs provide explanations for a variety of phenomena. In this final blog I’d like to focus on an important idea reflected in A Framework for K–12 Science Education (Framework) that DCIs are not stand-alone, individual facts that students come to “know” as the result of one lesson or across one grade. Rather, DCIs develop in ways that become progressively more sophisticated as students use those ideas to make sense of new phenomena or problems within and across the grade levels. What is meant by more sophisticated? It means that students’ explanations become deeper and broader allowing them to explain more fully the causes and consequences of a wider array of related phenomena. Sophistication also means that DCIs become integrated with more ideas and experiences. Sophistication is not acquiring more ideas and more details; rather, it is about making connections to ideas and experiences. As ideas get more sophisticated, students come to understand the cause and effect mechanisms that underlie a range of phenomena.

Research from the learning sciences and science education has shown that in order for knowledge to be useful, students need to learn ideas in greater depth and across time.  The DCIs are introduced to students in early grades and develop throughout the K–12 years and beyond. As such, core ideas form a strong foundation to promote continual learning throughout one’s life. Building ideas across time supports learners in developing deeper and more meaningful and sophisticated understandings by forming connections among ideas. These connections will allow learners to apply the understandings to new and novel situations.

For most science educators, taking a developmental approach to teaching science is new.  As teachers and curriculum designers, we need to carefully link new learning and experiences to what students have previously learned, allowing the ideas to become more sophisticated over time. The idea of building on previous ideas is one of the most solid ideas in learning; unfortunately, in the past we’ve seldom given it the attention it deserves. For example, some textbooks present ideas about the water cycle that are dependent on understanding that matter is made of particles, without providing the help students need to develop this idea. The Framework emphasizes the importance of taking a developmental perspective focused on developing ideas over time and building on students’ prior knowledge and experiences.

A developmental perspective requires us, as teachers and curriculum designers, to build and link to students’ current understanding to form richer and more connected ideas over time (NRC 2007). Disciplinary core ideas should develop from elementary through high school. Each year the ideas become more sophisticated, allowing students to provide more complete explanations of phenomena as well as explain more phenomena. 

A developmental perspective guides students’ knowledge toward a more sophisticated and integrated understanding of the scientific idea. For example, if by the end of 5^th grade we can help students know and apply the idea that forces acting on an object can cause changes in the object’s speed or direction, we can help learners in later grades develop deeper ideas of forces, including those at the intermolecular level. Similarly, helping 3^rd-grade students understand that changes in the environment will cause some organisms to survive and reproduce, others to move to a new location, and others to die off, can lead to deeper understanding of natural selection and evolution in middle school and high school. The grade band endpoints in the Framework show this progression of ideas across time. In Disciplinary Core Ideas:  Reshaping Teaching and Learning (Duncan, Krajcik, & Ravit 2016) various chapters on the DCIs discuss how they develop across time. Examples of how teachers can support student learning at various steps is also presented and discussed.

The developmental perspective also stresses that teaching more content, devoid from the use and application of those ideas, does not allow students to explain or reason about phenomena. Students can memorize science principles, but not really understand them. It helps to reflect back on our own experiences. I remember being able to solve the problems in my college physics class, but I didn’t understand the ideas behind what I was doing or how to apply those ideas to the world in which I lived.

It is critical to realize that growth in understanding is not developmentally inevitable, but depends on what we do in our teaching to provide key learning experiences that help students develop the ideas to become more sophisticated. Reaching the various endpoints depends on the instruction the student receives and how understanding is assessed. Disciplinary Core Ideas:  Reshaping Teaching and Learning (Duncan, Krajcik & Ravit 2016) presents some ideas to move students from one level to another, but development of coherent curriculum materials that build understanding across time is needed.

Concluding Thoughts

Deep, meaningful understanding of disciplinary core ideas are essential to predict and explain phenomena, but DCIs serve as only one dimension in developing this useable knowledge. Science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts work together to support students in making sense of phenomena or designing solutions. Rather than “learning” numerous disconnected ideas, the Framework focuses on helping learners develop a useable understanding of fewer, powerful ideas that develop across K–12-science curriculum and can form conceptual tools that learners can use to make sense of the world. Classroom instruction and curriculum materials will need to support students in reaching these important ideas. As such, curriculum materials and instruction focus on making sense of phenomena using the DCIs, scientific and engineering practices, and core ideas. 

It is also important to realize that DCIs are for all students in our nation. All learners need to develop a sophisticated understanding of DCIs so that they can be used along with science and engineering practices and crosscutting concepts to make sense of the world. Developing useable knowledge will help ensure that we have a sustainable and free world in which to live. If given the chance I might tweak some of the physical science core ideas; but, I am convinced that the full spectrum of DCIs, along with the science and engineering practices, are good guides for our teaching and learning.

I would love to hear from you about the ideas in this blog, your ideas, questions, and feedback. Tweet me at @krajcikjoe or email me krajcik@msu.edu.  If you want to learn more about the disciplinary core ideas take a look at our new book, Disciplinary Core Ideas:  Reshaping Teaching and Learning, edited by Ravit Duncan, Joe Krajcik, and Ann Rivet, just published by NSTA Press.

References

American Association for the Advancement of Science (1993). Benchmarks for science literacy. New  York: Oxford University Press.

Duncan, R., J. Krajcik, and A. Ravit eds. 2016. Disciplinary Core Ideas:  Reshaping Teaching and Learning.  Arlington, VA: National Science Teachers Association Press.

Fortus, D. and J. Krajcik. 2011. Curriculum Coherence and Learning Progressions in The International Handbook of Research in Science Education (second edition) Fraser, B. J., K. G. Tobin, and C. J. McRobbie, eds. Dordrecht: Springer.

National Research Council (NRC). 2012. A framework for K–12 science education: Practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas. Washington DC: National Academies Press.

Stevens, S., L. Sutherland, and J. S. Krajcik. 2009. The Big Ideas of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. Arlington, VA: National Science Teachers Association Press.

_____________________________________________________

Joe Krajcik

Editor’s note: This blog is the last in a series of three by Joe Krajcik that explore the NGSS disciplinary core ideas. 

Joe Krajcik (Krajcik@msu.edu) is a professor of science education at Michigan State University and director of the Institute for Collaborative Research for Education, Assessment, and Teaching Environments for Science, Technology and Engineering and Mathematics (CREATE for STEM). He served as Design Team Lead for both the Framework and the NGSS.

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

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All three journals this month include the inaugural Best STEM Books for Students K–12 with descriptions and reviews. The rubric and criteria used in selecting these books is also provided. Share it with your librarian, too.

Crowdfunding for Elementary Science Educators in S&C has fund-raising ideas applicable to any grade level.

Science Scope — Water

From the chemistry of water to the biology of water habitats and ecosystem to the relationship of water and weather to the importance of water in the body to current events related to access to clean water, water is indeed an Essential Substance.

Featured articles that describe lessons include a helpful sidebar (“At a Glance”) documenting the big idea, essential pre-knowledge, time, and cost. The lessons also include connections with the NGSS.

• Supporting Student Understanding of Watersheds by Using Multiple Models to Explore Elevation shows how a variety of models and maps can help students understand the flow of water in a watershed and its relation to elevation.
• If you are looking for a context in which to help students understand the concept of systems, take a look at Learning and Applying Systems Thinking When Studying a Local Creek System. The article includes student diagrams.
• From Fish Tank to Fuel Tank: Engineering Photobioreactors in the Classroom describes a multidisciplinary activity in which students grew algae as a potential source of renewable energy.
• Water, Water, Everywhere! But Is It Clean to Drink? Applying Engineering Design to the Challenge of Water Purification takes a problem-solving approach to this topic.
• The 5E lesson in An Inquiry Lesson on Stream Ecosystems shows students how the distribution of aquatic macroinvertebrates relates to the characteristics of a stream. There are suggestions for modifying this investigation if you aren’t near a stream, too.
• Science on a Shoestring: Testing the Waters includes directions for making and using a mini Secchi disk to measure water turbidity.
• With the Citizen Science: Citizen Science for a Rainy (or Snowy) Day project, your students can contribute to a national database of precipitation data, which can be used by the National Weather Service, NASA, USDA, researchers, and emergency management.
• Disequilibrium: Sticking Together has a 5E lesson on the cohesive properties of water.
• Teacher to Teacher: Designing the Water Treatment Process has a timely lesson on creating and testing models of treating water.
• Find ideas and suggestions from other teachers in this month’s Listserv Roundup: Teaching the Water Cycle.

For more on the content that provides a context for these projects and strategies see the SciLinks topics Algae, Aquatic Ecosystems, Eclipses, Freshwater Ecosystems, Groundwater, Ocean Water Chemistry, Photosynthesis, Water Cycle, Water Properties, Water Quality, Water Treatment, Watersheds

Continue for The Science Teacher and Science and Children

The Science Teacher — Evolution

The featured articles in this issue focus on evolution as a foundation and unifying theme of biology, helping us to understand the diversity of living things and how they are interconnected. In the Editor’s Corner: This View of Life, the editor shares advice for when a student has religious concerns for learning about evolution.

The lessons described in the articles include connections with the NGSS.

• In some communities, Evolution is a controversial topic. The commentary It’s About Time to Teach Evolution Forthrightly has suggestions for improving our teaching of evolution and supporting our colleagues to do so.
• Staying Within the Law addresses some of the legal implications of teaching evolution in public schools. A must-read!
• Defusing Discomfort describes a writing process that could be adapted to any controversial topic and provides an outlet for student views. The article includes examples of prompts related to evolution.
• Get ready for a virtual field trip. The 5E lesson in Lessons of the Galápagos explores the unique biology of these islands and how they were a “laboratory” for studying evolution.
• Experimenting With Extinction shows how students can design and test hypotheses about the extinction of cat species using historical data
• Career of the Month: Evolutionary Psychologist features an interview and description of this interdisciplinary field.
• Focus on Physics: Newton’s (Often Misunderstood) Third Law of Motion is an easy-to-read discussion that could be shared with students.
• The authors of Idea Bank: Skip the Cell Unit advocate for teaching about cells in context, rather than as an isolated unit focusing on the parts of a cell.

For more on the content that provides a context for these projects and strategies see the SciLinks topics Charles Darwin, Darwin and Natural Selection, Evolution, Evolution of Man, Evolutionary Biology, Extinction, Galapagos Islands, Natural Selection, Vertebrate Evolution, Newton’s Third Law

Science & Children – Early Childhood Earth Science

Young children are full of curiosity and are eager to experiment (“play”) with objects and phenomena. Early intervention is a key to tapping into this curiosity. This issue has many ideas that are appropriate for young (and maybe not-so-young) students.

The lessons described in the articles include connections with the NGSS.

• In addition to a 5E lesson for student investigations, Acting Like Rain has charts that show how Pre-K activities can align with elementary NGSS and Common Core.
• Play is what children do best! Teaching With Play taps into their excitement with a lesson on environmental science (helping or hurting the environment) and pollution. The article includes photos of the children’s work.
• As an alternative to storybooks the author of Interactive Reading suggests how to incorporate informational texts into read-alouds for young children.
• It’s not too early to begin the Countdown to the Great American Eclipse, the first total solar eclipse in the continental US since 1979, especially since your school might not be in session on August 21.
• The Early Years: Looking at Landscapes has a lesson for using the playground as a lab for studying landforms and erosion.
• Teaching Through Trade Books: Focusing on Earth’s Features provides two 5E lessons for helping students model and understand landforms and patterns.
• Poetry of Science: Water, Water, Everywhere has ideas for combining science and language. Perhaps your students could create similar poems?
• The Science 101 column provides resources for the questions children ask. This month features Why Do We Only See One Side of the Moon?
• Integrating the Arts with the design process is the focus Engineering Encounters: From STEM to STEAM, as students design and test rollercoasters.
• Using age-appropriate activities and informational books, the author of Round and Round the Water Cycle describes how to craft learning activities that can be the foundation for future learning. Examples of student work are provided.

For more on the content that provides a context for these projects and strategies see the SciLinks topics Eclipses, Habitats, Landforms, Moon Phases, Plate Tectonics, Roller Coasters, Solutions to Pollution Problems, Volcanoes, Water Cycle, Watersheds

Helping Students Make Sense of the World Using Next Generation Science and Engineering Practices provides an in-depth understanding of the practices strand of A Framework for K–12 Science Education (Framework) and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

Noting that the changes to the standards will likely cause some stress, the authors developed this resource to help teachers. “This is an exciting time in science education. We have many opportunities before us to make significant and lasting change in the ways we teach science at the K–12 level. But with major change comes some anxiety. We hope this book can begin to answer some of your questions based on the reforms found in the Framework and the NGSS,” the authors state in the first chapter.

Helping Students Make Sense of the World addresses three major questions:

• How will engaging students in science and engineering practices help improve science education?
• What do the eight practices look like in the classroom?
• How can educators engage students in practices to bring the NGSS to life?

Written in clear, nontechnical language, this book edited by Christina Schwarz, Cynthia Passmore, and Brian Reiser, explains what is different about practice-centered teaching and learning and how it fits into what teachers have already been doing. “We like to think of the focus on practices as a kind of Inquiry 2.0—not a replacement for inquiry but rather a second wave that articulates more clearly what successful inquiry looks like when it results in building scientific knowledge,” state the editors.

Developed for K–12 science teachers, curriculum developers, teacher educators, and administrators, the book’s lessons are classroom-tested and designed to make implementing the practices as easy as possible.

Check out the sample chapter Developing and Using Models.  Helping Students Make Sense of the World is also available as an ebook.

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This week in education news, Idaho legislators remove climate change language from new state science standards, California renews push to promote environmental education in public schools, three global indexes show that America’s public schools are doing something right, and Intel dropped its sponsorship of the International Science and Engineering Fair.

Idaho Legislators Strip Climate Change Language in New Science Standards

Idaho Lawmakers on the state’s House Education Committee voted to approve the new K-12 science standards only when references to human activity as a prime cause of climate change that had appeared in a draft of the standards were removed. Click here to read the article featured in Education Week.

California Renews Push to Promote Environmental Literacy in Schools

Environmental education in California got another big push last November when the State Board of Education approved integrating five key environmental principles into the new science frameworks last November. The frameworks provide a blueprint for introducing the Next Generation Science Standards, which the state adopted in 2013, and are gradually being introduced in schools across the state. Click here to read the article featured on the EdSource website.

Three Global Indexes Show that U.S. Public Schools Must be Doing Something Right

Three global indexes show that U.S. public schools must be doing something right. Test scores aren’t the only measure of achievement. Click here to read the article featured in The Washington Post.

Intel Drops Its Sponsorship of Science Fairs, Prompting an Identity Crisis

Intel ended its support last year for the national Science Talent Search and now will drop its backing of the International Science and Engineering Fair. Intel’s move away from traditional science fairs leads to broader questions about how a top technology company should handle the corporate sponsorship of science, and what is the best way to promote the education of the tech work force of the future. Click here to read the article featured in The New York Times.

Spatial Skills: A Neglected Dimension of Early STEM Education

Mounting empirical evidence suggests that spatial skills actually predict success in STEM fields out to adulthood. Indeed, they may serve as a STEM “gateway.” Despite the evidence, however, the importance of spatial skills is often overlooked as a key feature of STEM education. This frequent neglect of spatial development creates an additional barrier to children’s STEM learning. Click here to read the article featured on Education Week’s Leadership 360 blog.

Stay tuned for next week’s top education news stories.

The Communication, Legislative & Public Affairs (CLPA) team strives to keep NSTA members, teachers, science education leaders, and the general public informed about NSTA programs, products, and services and key science education issues and legislation. In the association’s role as the national voice for science education, its CLPA team actively promotes NSTA’s positions on science education issues and communicates key NSTA messages to essential audiences.

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

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This Valentine’s Day, while most media attention was focused on the dismissal of the National Security Advisor, The New York Times ran a story that received much less media attention, but has far greater potential impact on our nation’s future.

Amy Harmon reported in the article, Human Gene Editing Receives Science Panel’s Support, about a just-released study by the National Academies of Science, Medicine, and Engineering (Human Genome Editing: Science, Ethics, and Governance. National Academy Press, 2017) that supports continued research and application of genetic modification of human cells, including those cells that pass genetic information to the next generation.

Writes Harmon, “The advisory group endorsed only alterations designed to prevent babies from acquiring genes known to cause ‘serious diseases and disability,’ and only when there is no ‘reasonable alternative.’ The report provides an explicit rationale for genetic research that the federal government has avoided supporting until now, although the work is being pursued in countries like Sweden and China.” 

One year ago, scientists stated that the ethical questions associated with the genetic modification of human germ cells could be deferred because the risks associated with the methods were too great to permit even exploratory testing. How quickly the science and the technology have changed!

Most importantly, the report calls for extensive public participation in the discussion of the future use of the technology: RECOMMENDATION 7-1. Extensive and inclusive public participation should precede clinical trials for any extension of human genome editing beyond treatment or prevention of disease or disability.

The students in our classes now will soon be in their childbearing years and will be directly affected by the decisions that will be made in the near future. Will they be able to join this discussion? Will they know enough about science to successfully question the evidence? Assess the risks? Understand the benefits?

While science and STEM education are critical “workforce” issues, let’s not forget that science literacy for all is an essential skill and knowledge base for citizenship, now more than ever. We are living at a time when our leadership does not see the need for science in its decision making and may favor “alternative” facts over scientific facts.

Understanding and teaching about the human role in modifying our climate has been challenging to date, but imagine teaching about our role in altering mankind. The stakes are high, and arguably human genome editing will have a greater impact than who is at the helm of the National Security Council.  

Dr. David L. Evans is the Executive Director of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). Reach him via e-mail at devans@nsta.org or via Twitter @devans_NSTA.

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

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Walk outside with your children, watch and count birds for 15 minutes while recording the names of those you know, and report your bird count to be part of a world-wide citizen-science project to collect data on wild birds, creating an annual snapshot of the distribution and abundance of birds. On any or all of these four days, February 17-20, 2017, you will be part of the more than 160,000 people who do this every February for the Great Backyard Bird Count, a global event facilitated by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Audubon, and Bird Studies Canada.

Get children ready for the day by looking at the birds that regularly hang out around the play yard or nearby park. The Great Backyard Bird Count website has many tools for identifying birds. I like children to handle life-size cardboard silhouettes of the common birds to help them remember bird sizes and shapes. See February 2007 The Early Years column, “Birds in Winter,” (free to all) for a description of using silhouettes to make bird shape rubbings. See additional resources for children about birds in a March 2011 blog post.

As children see birds, help them tally up the total number seen at a single time (you don’t want to count the same pigeon 25 times!). Observing birds is a great way to begin a discussion on animal diversity, comparing size, colors, and the locations birds seem to prefer. Over time, children begin to identify distinctive bird calls and songs. By entering the data your children collect, they will be helping to answer questions such as, “What kinds of differences in bird diversity are apparent in cities versus suburban, rural, and natural areas?”

When children’s interest in bird watching is high, setting up a feeder near a window can create an on-going science center for collecting data about which species visit which type of feeder. See an example of a data collection sheet that you can revise to show the species in your area. Begin now and your children will see the bird population at their feeder change as the season changes from winter to spring and beyond.

In science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) labs, teachers and students can be exposed to a number of electrical hazards such as damaged electrical receptacles, missing ground prongs, and faulty electrical equipment. These hazards can result in electric shock, electrocution, fire, and explosions.

Circuit breakers only protect the science lab and school building—not the teachers or students—from these hazards. A ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI), a device that constantly compares current flowing from the hot wire to the neutral wire in a circuit, can help protect lab occupants from electrical accidents. If the GFCI senses an imbalance in the current, a switch will open and the current will stop flowing in about 1/40 of a second.

To help maintain your GFCI, the circuit breaker must be flipped on and off a couple of times on a monthly basis to prevent the buildup of corrosion that might interfere with the operation of the GFCI. This is especially true in lab environments that contain corrosive fumes. Warn/inform your colleagues before flipping the breaker, in case computers or other technologies are being used during the maintenance.

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s QuickFacts (see Resources) teachers should follow these better professional practices to avoid electrical hazards in the lab:

1. Make sure manufacturer’s recommendations are followed when using any electrical equipment.

2. The safest lab equipment has either a three-prong plug (including a ground plug) or double insulation.

3. Make sure any electrical receptacle used near a water source (e.g., sinks, aquariums, wave tanks) is GFCI-protected and operational.

4. Do not use extension cords as a substitute for permanent wiring. This can be a fire hazard.

5. Before using any electrical equipment in the lab, visually inspect the power cord and plug to make sure they are in good condition.

6. If you plug more than two pieces of low-demand equipment (e.g., computer, printer) into a standard outlet, use a fused power strip that will shut off if too much power is used.

7. Do not use power strips for high-demand electrical equipment (e.g., microwave oven, power tools) because they can be a fire hazard. Only plug them into a standard outlet.

8. Never disable any electrical safety feature. For example, never break off a ground prong from a three-conductor plug.

9. Never directly touch someone who is being shocked or electrocuted. Although the human body is a poor conductor of electricity, a wet surface and as little as 1/5 Amp can cause serious injury. If possible, turn off the power (pull the plug or trip the circuit breaker), or use an item made of nonconductive material (e.g., wooden broom handle) to pry him or her away from the electrical source. Call 911 immediately.

10. GFCIs do not protect the individuals from line-to-line contact hazards, when a person holds two hot wires or a hot and a neutral wire at the same time. If a student’s fingers were on the metal prongs of a microscope plug when pushing it into an outlet, for example, this would constitute line-to-line contact. At the least, the student would receive a serious shock.

In the end

To find out whether your lab is GFCI-protected, ask the supervisor of school facilities to survey the lab for GFCI protection. Additionally, hardware or electrical stores usually carry GFCI test devices for about $10, which are simple to operate and can test a whole lab within a few minutes.

GFCI protection is required under National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and OSHA codes and regulations. Science teachers need to work with administration to make sure their labs are up to code. Further, a licensed electrician or building inspector should check for applications of the NFPA and OSHA standards in science labs. See Resources for more information on electrical safety.

Submit questions regarding safety in K–12 to Ken Roy at safesci@sbcglobal.net, or leave him a comment below. Follow Ken Roy on Twitter: @drroysafersci.

Resources

GFCIs—www.safeelectricity.org/information-center/library-of-articles/55-home-safety/317-ground-fault-circuit-interrupters-gfcis
Electrical circuit-interrupters—www.nfpa.org/public-education/by-topic/top-causes-of-fire/electrical/electrical-circuit-interrupters
OSHA QucikFacts—www.osha.gov/Publications/laboratory/OSHAquickfacts-lab-safety-electrical-hazards.pdf

NSTA resources and safety issue papers
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