For the first semester in a very long time, my chemistry class does not have any lab sections scheduled on Monday. While I am uncertain if this was intentional or not, it has had some significant impact with both intended and unintended consequences.
I have long advocated for eliminating Monday labs in both fall and spring semesters. Both Labor Day and MLK Day create problems in developing a multi section lab schedule where all the sections remain uniform and consistent. It requires having lab the first day of the semester, often even before lecture meets and before anyone is well adjusted to the schedule. It also requires either a day off for all the other sections (bad precedent for maintaining student engagement when they are excited about the material) or a mix/mash schedule for the rest of the semester where Monday’s labs are doing the experiment everyone else did last week.
The other difficulty with the first week has been late additions to class after the first lab covering safety has already been completed. Students are allowed to change their schedule pretty freely up through the close of business Thursday afternoon. The result is that several students are able to add the class after their lab has met. They are often unable to attend a different lab section due to schedule conflicts and therefore miss drawer/equipment assignments and safety discussions, both of which are essential to a productive and successful semester.
This semester, with no Monday labs scheduled and with the uncertainty of a job action looming, I decided to not schedule lab for the first week of the semester and start with inventory, safety, and an experiment the second week. This still left enough time to accomplish everything needed for the outcomes and content in the course.
Positive consequences – Only two students missed their first lab period, both due to unavoidable medical or family necessity. Time was available to plan for these absences and make suitable arrangements. Lab topics are also going to fit better with lecture topics to create a more integrated course.
Potentially negative and unintended consequences – During the first week of class, students seemed slightly less engaged in class during lecture. In a large lecture hall, the 80+ students appear to be more spread out and less interested in engaging and asking and/or answering questions during lecture. Questions – Is this because there were no lab sessions to breakdown interpersonal communication barriers? Is it because of the stress on campus because of the aforementioned job action? Is it because I wore a tie three of the first for days of lecture and brought excessive formality to the situation? Are my recollections of previous first weeks faded enough that I am perceiving a difference when none really exists? Who on earth could I ever test any of these questions?
