The goal of this course is to introduce the students to some of the basic principles of the physical and biological sciences. The course is designed to provoke the students to use critical, creative and independent thinking. The ultimate goal is to provide students with the foundation to develop their own hypotheses, design an experiment to test the hypothesis, and collect and analyze relevant data.

The students will practice many laboratory techniques, form reasonable hypotheses, make conclusions based on experimental data, and develop their laboratory report writing skills.

The class will consist of a weekly two hour laboratory experiment. Students will be graded on weekly "small" reports and will be expected to submit a "large" lab report several times throughout the year. By the end of first term, students will be expected to develop and run their own experiments, with limited assistance from the teachers. The year end class assessment will be a group poster session.

-Listen carefully when the teacher explains lab protocols and gives safety directions.
-You may have your teacher check your lab report for errors before submitting it.
-You may ask your teacher for advice about how to edit your report.
-Submit your lab reports on time.