Death by Lab Report

Ahhh, the joy of Science!
Scientific method. Testing your theories in the lab. All very exciting. Will it work? Will your keen observing and digging up of existing work in this area all come together to help you form a bulletproof hypothesis which you will then carry out with greatest precision in your laboratory, to get the exact results you expected?

Erm, not exactly.

But that's alright! Scientific method allows for that. Scientific method doesn't mind things not turning out - so long as you explain why not. It's about the process.

And then it's about the report. The very structurally-defined report. The report which, as it turns out, even when it's been cleverly made into a form ahead of time, takes a l-o-n-g time for a kid to write out while classmates wait. I'm afraid my theory of someone - anyone - taking dictation while the others chimed in with the content sounds much better than it plays out. (That didn't sound bad, did it?) But really, it was very close to early death to a couple of our little scientists.

*sigh* Live & learn. Next Monday: new lab report form - possibly the world's first multiple-choice lab report. It might not do justice to the cherished format, but to save little scientist lives, I think it'll be worth it. (o;