The labs on this post tend to be popular, because they cover a lot of topics within the lab, build skills, and/or are engaging. You don’t need to do all of them! I do about half of these.

Read APES Lab Supplies Part 1 for Must-Do Labs

APES Lab Supplies for Popular Labs

• Ecocolumns
  • This is a favorite lab for kids and gives them long-term data collection and analysis. Click for the supplies for this lab. I have recommendations for cheap and more expensive supplies depending on your budget.

• Tragedy of the Commons:  This lab has many great versions.
  • Colored marshmallows, goldfish crackers, or candy are favorites. Some teachers use beads to be reusable. If you have large classes, marshmallows are the cheapest.
  • Straws
  • Tape
  • Paper plates or paper towels

• Owl Pellets:  This lab can be expensive. If I have the funds, I do the lab. If not, I skip. But kids get a lot out of it if you have the funds.
  • Large (preferred) or small owl pellets. One per pair or group.
  • Gloves
  • Dissection trays or paper plates
  • Tweezers
  • Reference sheets

• Biodiversity:  There are many varieties of this lab that are used including:
  • Parking lot biodiversity lab
    • Needs no supplies
  • Biodiversity of plants using quadrats
    • Need Collapsible sampling squares or pieces of string or even hoola hoops
  • Tree biodiversity in forests (if you live by a forest).
    • Need tree ID reference sheets

• Island Biogeography
  • Many versions. Some use beans and funnels and meter sticks
  • Others use birdseed, paper clips, cotton balls, beads etc to throw at paper islands.
• Ocean Acidification
  • Plastic cups: 4-5 per group
  • Shells (ask kids to donate or ask seafood restaurants for oyster, clams and mussel shells). One small shell or piece of a larger shell per group.
  • Vinegar or another acid
  • pH meters
  • Scales-pocket or regular
  • Plastic pipets

• Cemetery Lab for human population studies
  • No supplies needed if you can walk to an old cemetery
  • If you simulate using paper tombstones in lab, you may want to decorate the lab with Halloween decorations. The dollar store is a good source.
• Oil Spill Cleanup
  • Plastic containers or metal pans to hold water and simulate the ocean. One per group.
  • Cotton Balls
  • Straws
  • Plastic pipets
  • Cups or Beakers
  • Vegetable or mineral oil
  • Detergent
• Air Pollution Lab.  There are a few good ones to choose from.
  • Air Pollution Kit
  • Ozone Lab using Test Strips 
  • Design a scrubber kit
  • Air Particulates Experimental Design Lab
    • Petri dishes-2 per student, if possible
    • Vaseline
    • Tape-blue painter’s tape is best as it can be removed easily to allow reuse of the dishes.
    • Stereoscopes are best. Microscopes can also work using a low objective. Hand lens with a good light source work, but are more difficult for kids to use.
    • Poster paper with markers (optional) for lab assessment

• Biomagnification Activity: Many great versions of the lap exist
  • One version of the lab uses colored paperclips
  • Another version uses pieces of laminated paper
  • Another version uses candy

• Kill-A-Watt Lab
  • Need several kill-a-watt meters. I use 10 of them for kids to rotate stations
  • You also need various electronic devices.

• Productivity–there are many versions of this lab also.
  • One lab uses grass seeds, potting soil and pots
  • Another lab uses bottles of water with algae and dissolved oxygen probes
  • I do a video virtual lab
  • You can also purchase a kit. 
• Soil Profiles made out of food items
  • plastic parfait cups: one per student
  • Vanilla and chocolate pudding: quantity depends on number of students.
  • Oreo cookies
  • Sprinkles
  • Gummy worms: 2 per student
  • Spoons
• Cookie Mining
  • Generic chocolate chip cookies (1 per pair of students)
  • Name-brand chocolate chip cookies
  • Extra cookies to eat when finished
  • Paper clips
  • Toothpicks
  • Scales-pocket or regular (optional)
• Solar Cookers (usually done after the AP® exam due to time requirements)
  • Aluminum foil–a big roll from Costco or Amazon will make a lot of solar cookers
  • Packing tape or duct tape
  • Masking tape
  • Lots of boxes: I ask the food service on campus for empty boxes
  • Empty cans to test water temperature
  • Plastic wrap
  • Thermometers
  • IR Temperature guns (optional)

• Biological Oxygen Demand (sometimes done with a water quality lab)
  • I do as a virtual lab
  • If you do as a regular lab, you will need a dissolved oxygen test kit or dissolved oxygen probes
• Tree Ring Studies for climate change
  • Need various “tree cookies” (tree slices) 
  • Or, use a kit that simulates tree cores
• Forest Studies (if you live next to a forest)
  • tape measures
  • Homemade or purchased clinometers

Other Basic Supplies

I use these items frequently for many labs

Sharpies (need 10 black for the year)
Spoons (need 1 box for labs)
De-chlorine drops for fish tanks
Filters for fish tank
Aquarium light bulbs
Fish food
Colored markers (Crayola or similar) for lab conclusion posters
Painter’s tape for marking beakers, lab apparatus
Hand Sanitizer-large container for classroom
Batteries for various sensors and probes
Chalk: IKEA makes the best chalk! Or Expo Neon markers for lab table drawings

 

A question new AP® Environmental Science teachers ask is “What supplies do I need?” or “What kits should I buy?” This post will go over basic APES lab supplies.

Kits are a great way to start and can help many new AP® teachers. After a while many veteran APES teachers no longer buy kits as we have figured out how to source materials more cheaply and have altered labs to how we like them.

APES lab supplies can be cheap or expensive.  What you decide to do depends on your location (some outdoor labs are regional), the materials you have, the size of your classes and how much money you have.  Over time, apply for grants and other funding to build up your supply of plant lights, probesware etc.

• You need basic lab supplies that your school should already have such as glass and plastic beakers, balances, graduated cylinders etc.

APES Lab Supplies for Must-do Labs

While there are no official required labs for APES, there are a few which have appeared on the AP® Exam or cover many concepts that have appeared on the exam. Here are some recommendations for APES lab supplies.

• Salinization Lab:  For this lab you need
  • Salt
  • Petri dishes or ziploc bags
  • Distilled water
  • Plastic pipets
  • Seeds.  Peas, Mung Beans, and Radish are all good options

• LD-50 Lab: You can do this lab many ways.
  • Use salinization lab results so you aren’t taking time for a new lab.
  • Purchase a kit.
  • Purchase individual supplies. You need macroinvertebrates such as brine shrimp or daphnia, some kind of toxin, and beakers/cups etc.  Some teachers use seeds instead of invertebrates.

• Soil Quality Labs
  • Chemistry of Soil Test Kit or with a soil meter.
  • Physical Properties of Soil. Can be purchased in a kit or by individually purchasing materials such as sand, soil, gravel and plastic cups.
  • Both types of tests can be purchased in a kit also.
  • You can also take soil measurements with the ecocolumn lab instead of a separate lab.

• Water Quality Lab
  • Depending on your budget, you can purchase an inexpensive kit, test strips or probes. Probes or sensors are more expensive initially, but end up saving money over multiple years. See this post for supply ideas for an in-class lab. If you have a pond or creek to walk to, you may want a portable kit.
  • If you have a creek or pond, you may want to purchase a couple of hip waders and macroinvertebrate collection devices or kits.

• Experimental Design Lab:  Don’t do as a separate lab just to teach scientific method at the beginning of the year–you don’t have time in an AP® course. Instead, teach experimental design with another lab such as salinization,  ocean acidification, biodiversity with quadrats, or air particulates.

Read the next post for more recommended labs.

APES Lab Supplies Part 2: More Recommended Labs

 

 

One of the best (and easy to implement) labs I do is an air pollution lab–airborne particulates lab. I worked with a colleague at a neighboring school (Laura Solarez) to develop this lab for AP® Environmental Science.

This is an experimental design lab which is really important for students to do at least once or twice in the year, because the AP® Exam WILL have experimental design questions on the multiple choice section and sometimes on an FRQ. The AP® exam will ask complicated higher-level thinking questions-many of which are experimental design. 

Materials

Materials are quick and easy for this lab

1. Petri dishes-2 per student, if possible
2. Vaseline
3. Tape-blue painter’s tape is best as it can be removed easily to allow reuse of the dishes.
4. Stereoscopes are best. Microscopes can also work using a low objective. Hand lens with a good light source work, but are more difficult for kids to use.
5. Poster paper with markers (optional) for lab assessment

Day 1

Day one of the air pollution lab takes about 45-60 minutes. Student lab groups brainstorm and come up with a question to test, a hypothesis, and design. They must get two approvals from me before making their petri dishes.  My students have already done an experimental design lab so this process is fairly quick at this point. If this is the first experimental design lab of the year, expect this to take longer and for students to need more revision.

This lab is challenging with the constants. They can never really isolate all the variables and because of this, they will get flawed data. This is really important!!   Analyzing the weaknesses in their lab help them identify flawed experiments later on in life and on the AP® Exam. I aim to develop scientifically literature citizens.

I give students some ideas such as comparing indoor vs. outdoor particulates, front yard vs. back yard or the number of pets. Some students come up with very creative ideas outside of these suggestions.

If rain is in the forecast, make sure they don’t set out the dishes in the rain (or sprinklers). Also, they need to make sure they all set out the dishes on the same day for the same amount of time, because weather can influence.

After approvals, students make their dishes. I made this video last year. They pay attention to the video more than me demonstrating in person!  I show the video up to minute 3:18 on Day 1

Make sure you tell students to make a little sign at home, because I’ve had many dishes thrown away by parents over the years. They don’t know what it is and just throw away. Students make a sign that says “Science experiment–don’t throw away”.

Day 2 of the Lab

Day 2 of the air pollution lab is several days later. Give students enough time (over the weekend, for example) to expose their dishes for at least 24 hours. Students bring their dishes back to school on the day you instruct.

I show the rest of my video to help them understand how to count the particulates.

Students need to make a template out of graph paper to use on each petri dish. Its impossible to count every particulate so using a template with a few boxes helps them manage the counting.

Since students work in groups of 4, they divide up tasks. Some count data and some begin their posters. They can switch jobs if they desire.

After students finish counting particulates, They can wash the dishes in hot soapy water and dry. The dishes can be used again next year and also for the Soil Salinization lab.

Assessment

I like students to make and present posters for this air pollution lab. It really helps them discuss and analyze the results. Why their hypothesis was correct or not AND more importantly, why this lab was flawed. They can never fully control all the variables and I want them to see that other factors may have influenced their results. This is the best part of the lab–learning to identify flawed experiments.

My poster template is inspired by Argument-Based Inquiry, but I have added more sections and clearer instructions.

I have had students present to the entire class, present to two other groups, or make a Flipgrid. All three ways have merit.

You can also have students write a formal lab report individual or as a group as assessment as well.

Click for a poster rubric.

A complimentary lab is the Kill-A-Watt Lab.  A lot of particulates air pollution comes from the production of electricity from coal. This lab also helps students develop math skills.