Getting Started with LABsent

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Although research suggests that students learn better with an inquiry-based approach like SEPUP’s, many teachers struggle with problems caused by students who need to make up a missed lab(s) due to absence. We developed the LABsent® tools so that students who miss lab work can easily make up the work without requiring teachers to give up prep or afterschool time to supervise the lab. The LABsent® packets typically contain a modified version of the lab activity, sometimes with links to short videos of the activity, and may contain data tables and questions for students to complete.

What follows are guidelines followed in the development of LABsent® in order to make it useful to as many teachers as possible.

LABsent® strictly follows the SEPUP Teacher’s Guide lesson components: Get Started, Do the Activity, and Build Understanding. Every attempt was made to provide the absent student the same experience that took place in the classroom.
Questions in the Teacher’s Guide that are designed to be asked to the class are most often in the LABsent® packet and the absent student is expected to answer these in writing, even though students present for the activity would have answered them during discussion.
The SEPUP Planning and Carrying Out Investigations (PCI) activities were purposely left as such so that absent students would have the opportunity to truly design their own investigation. There is no LABsent® video showing these procedures as this would compromise the PCI process.
Not all LABsent® work can be completed out of class. PCI activities, and some questions that call for students to obtain data or discuss results with classmates were left as written, so that the interactive nature of this work was left intact. We did not want to reduce or eliminate the inquiry component by having videos or documents available with the “answers.” These are often noted in the LABsent® activity in red and students are directed to complete that portion when they return to class.
Not all LABsent® activities include a video. For example, activities that included a card sort have scanned copies of the cards in the packet. This makes them available for the students to cut out and manipulate at home to complete the activity.
LABsent® packets may never be completed in their entirety as most SEPUP activities take more than one class period to complete. If a student is only absent one day, the teacher may need to assign only certain portions of the LABsent® packet. Long-term absences may require completion of several packets.
Often, the SEPUP lesson plan calls for students to complete analysis items after the activity is debriefed in class. In LABsent®, when there is a Build Understanding question that would give an answer to an analysis item, especially an assessment analysis item, that Build Understanding question is not included in the packet.

LABsent Overviews

SEPUP's Issues and Science, Third Edition

Biomedical Engineering

Body Systems

Chemical Reactions

Chemistry of Materials

Fields and Interactions

Force and Motion

From Cells to Organisms

Geological Processes

Land, Water, and Human Interactions

Reproduction

Waves

Weather and Climate