"Jim, put your history book away and help Alice with the assignment."

"Class, you have 10 minutes to complete the activity."

"Material handlers, be sure everyone has a pair of goggles before going into the lab."

Speaking quietly to a cooperative team, the teacher say, "Your team should be proud of the way you reported the results of yesterday's lab---nice work!"

"Today we'll be organized into six groups; count of by 4 in each group; the 1s will take the role of facilitator; 2s material handler; 3s recorders; and 4s reporters."

"Stop the action!---There's one more piece of equipment each group needs. Here it is. Send your material handler to get it."

"When you finish working with the mice today, be sure to put them carefully in their cages."

These are samples of teacher statements each of which focuses on the role of the teacher in the science classroom. If you reread the statements you will note that in each case the teacher is directing the students in some aspect of classroom behavior or performance. These are management behaviors that all teachers engage in during every science lesson. Knowing how to manage science classrooms is the focus of this chapter.

Effective classroom management incorporates teacher behaviors that result in high levels of student involvement in classroom activities, and minimizes student disruptions, and other behaviors that interfere with student involvement in science learning. The classroom manager can also be viewed as a facilitator of learning. Facilitators help other person's learn by creating a classroom environment that is conducive to learning. Facilitators take into consideration the individual needs of students, and at the same time realize that they are working with groups of students and therefore must be focused on group dynamics and social behavior. Group management behaviors that result in effective learning environments will be explored and related to science teaching.

Effective classroom management requires that teachers get off to a good start each year, or whenever a new course begins. We will explore effective science teaching behaviors for the beginning of the year, and examine sample lessons that effective science teachers use to begin the year.

We will also examine the physical dimensions of classroom management by focusing on room design, materials in the science classroom, and consider some of the issues related to safety in the science classroom.