School labs need upgrade

Conejo Valley science classes lacking in space, equipment

By Jean Cowden Moore
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September 28, 2003

 

Seven teenagers crowd around a lab table at Thousand Oaks High School, shoulder to shoulder as they heat water in a glass beaker over a blue flame.

 

They're measuring the temperature of a solid as it transforms into a liquid, then back to a solid -- studying the interaction of energy and matter.

 

But with all those kids crammed together, the lab has proven something of a challenge.

 

"Sometimes it's hard because you're trying to share this small space," said Mandy McQuade, 15. "Everyone's getting in each other's way."

 

That's typical in Conejo Valley high schools, where there aren't enough labs for all the science classes offered, and equipment is up to 41 years old.

 

In some classrooms, gas jets don't work. Lab tables are barely holding up, despite the repairs teachers make every summer. And classes have to take turns using basic equipment such as microscopes.

 

That means teachers can't do as many labs as they'd like, so students lose out on the hands-on experiments that experts say are critical in learning science.

 

"Teaching science without labs is crazy," said Rick Freed, chairman of the science department at Newbury Park High School. "If there's anything that science is about, it's hands-on learning."

 

Robert Fraisse, superintendent of the Conejo Valley Unified School District, wants to make it easier for teachers to provide that hands-on learning.

 

He has made upgrading high school science labs a priority for the new Conejo Schools Foundation, which is raising money for all the district's schools. The foundation is looking for local businesses that might help pay for upgrading the labs in exchange for some sort of recognition -- a plaque in the room, for example.

 

"Our science labs are well under the norm for districts like ours," Fraisse said. "This is not up to our standards."

 

Fraisse estimates the total cost of the project at roughly $1.5 million.

 

Students in science classes should spend 40 percent to 60 percent of their time doing lab work, experts say --tough to do when there's not enough space or equipment. But that's the only way students can get the firsthand experience that is the foundation of science, said Anne Tweed, president-elect of the National Science Teachers Association.

 

"If labs are out of date, they don't have the opportunity to learn what scientists do," Tweed said.

 

Kathy Nash, chairwoman of the science department at Moorpark High School, knows the difference a spacious, modern lab classroom can make. Last year, her school added a new science wing, featuring labs that are essentially two classrooms in one, with desks on one side and lab tables on the other.

 

"You're more compelled to say, 'Let's go over to the lab, so we can do this activity; let's work with these chemicals,' " Nash said. "It makes it a lot easier."

 

For Conejo Valley teachers, labs can be much more of a challenge. Ask them for a wish list, and the same items keep popping up: more classrooms with gas and water; lab tables that can withstand chemical spills; and enough microscopes that students don't have to work in groups of three or four.

 

At all three high schools, teachers have to share equipment because there's not enough to go around.

 

That means teachers must check with their colleagues before they schedule a lab, to make sure no one else plans to use the equipment they need. Then, when it's actually time to do the lab, they often have to go find the equipment, load it onto a cart and move it into their classroom.

 

"If we want to do a lab, it's a treasure hunt," said Freed, the Newbury Park teacher. "It cuts into time we should be preparing for lessons."

 

Even then, students generally have to share microscopes and other key equipment because schools don't have enough for everyone. That means labs can take at least twice as long because students have to take turns peering into the lens and recording their results.

 

With larger groups, some students end up doing most of the work, said Joel Galanda, who teaches honors and advanced-placement chemistry at Thousand Oaks High.

 

"The individual who finds this exciting will do the lab, and the ones who don't will talk about what's happening over the weekend," Galanda said.

 

Microscopes cost between $300 and $1,000, so a set of 40, enough for a typical science class, would run about $28,000.

 

At Thousand Oaks High, teachers not only share equipment, but they also share classrooms because there aren't enough labs for all the science classes going on each day. The situation is so bad that science teachers, notoriously hard to come by, have turned down positions after touring the school, said Principal Jo-Ann Yoos.

 

Lab tables are also a problem at all three high schools. Westlake High still has the same tables it opened with 25 years ago.

 

"Before we get halfway through the year, they're on the verge of collapsing, so we do another repair job," said Nancy Bowman, chairwoman of the science department.

 

But lab tables, at about $500 each, are expensive to replace, partly because they must have a chemical-proof epoxy top.

 

At all three high schools, teachers have already taken some repairs and upgrades into their own hands.

 

Over at Newbury Park High, science teachers routinely spend part of their summer fixing up their labs -- doing everything from painting walls to building lab tables to installing cupboards.

 

At Thousand Oaks High, teachers have also added countertops and new tables.

 

But it's not enough, teachers say.

 

"We have four classrooms here that are just a box -- they're like an English class -- and people are trying to teach science in there," said Joe Carolan, a chemistry teacher at Thousand Oaks High. "It's tough. It's real tough."