Let me say, I hate not knowing what I will be doing next year! I know we have had advice to stay cool, even if we don’t have a job until the beginning of this next school year (because many jobs open up unexpectedly) but that does not make it any easier. I did get to go to Teacher Recruitment Day which was fine (I had two interviews but they weren’t as substantial as I thought they would be – basically, the interviewers suggested that I go apply online) – it was good to practice interviewing, but the non-final outcome left me (and I think a few others) a little disconcerted. I also wish I knew whether to throw myself full-heartedly into searching for jobs here in Rochester or in Toledo, Ohio- I’m not sure yet which place I will be in next year! I hear of others having interviews (which is wonderful for them!) but makes me a little nervous and unsettled- what else should I be doing, and is there any hope?
Job Searching…
Written by Kristen on April 24th, 2010Elementary Science!
Written by Kristen on April 24th, 2010So Maeghan and I did get to go teach our lessons to the elementary kids- and they were amazing! They were engaged and loved the hands-on activities that we presented to them- as we found out, they had already learned that matter was made of particles (and that solid particles were close and didn’t move, that liquid particles could move, and that gas particles moved fast and were spread apart) but they had not had not done any activities related to matter yet. As a
group, they were easily able to describe the properties of solids, liquids, and gases (what tells them that a solid is a solid, ect.) of the objects we brought in. They of course loved eating the “extra” chocolate chips in the phase change activity (they observed the phase change of melting chocolate) and they were so excited that they could use dry ice! We did get to have them do the activities related to phase change (seeing the balloon get bigger and putting out a candle) but there was a fire alarm, so they didn’t get to have random fun with the dry ice. Overall, I was amazed at how much these 4th graders already knew, and how quick they were at understanding what we were trying to get them to see in each of our activities. Although, I wonder: someone always had the “perfect” answer- did these students, at 4th grade, already know what we, as teachers, were fishing for – were they feeding us the answers we were looking for, without truly understanding what they were saying?
Chemistry….for kids!
Written by Kristen on April 10th, 2010So this next week, Maeghan and I will be doing a lesson (or two) for an elementary class, actually that of the brother of my last CT! They are just starting a unit on matter, so guess what we will be pulling out of our magic hats….dry ice and chocolate!! I was so excited to hear that they were doing physical science, because that is my area, and that is what my high schoolers just covered – phases, phase changes, ect. So, I get to tap into the fun stuff I did with the older kids, and hopefully figure out how to simplify it for the little ‘uns.
One thing to ponder through is the simplicity of the national standards as compared to the lengthy checklist of content that I need to cover in the state standards for high school. The national standards (for this topic) just say that students K-4 should know 1) that materials exist in different states and that these states can be changed from one state or another by heating or cooling and 2) that objects can be described by the properties of the materials they are made, properties that can be used to separate or sort the objects or materials. What am I supposed to do with that? Hmmm… almost anything I want… maybe I should really just think about being a 5th grade teacher…
Anyway, for our activities, we are thinking of starting by introducing them to a bunch of random, everyday things that are examples of solids, liquids, and gases, and have them tell us which ones are which phase, try to explain their properties, and share any other examples or experiences that they have. Then, I think we might talk about matter and how all matter is made up of particles (atoms if they have heard of them – actually they probably don’t know what particles refers to either!) and that in a solid they are packed together and pretty stuck, and in a liquid they can move, and in a gas, they move really fast and are far apart. We will have them be atoms themselves (woot! I just hope none of the run into something and hurt themselves!). Next, there is a melting chocolate activity to demonstrate how one phase can change into another through the addition of heat (they melt chocolate chips over a candle – an activity we got off of our elementary ed. prof’s husband). And then, dun dun dun….there is dry ice! We got sublimation (of course we won’t use that exact term) and some exciting bubbling and fog (yeah they’ll probably want to make a fog machine)…but the educational part will be seeing the two different phases…and we will use the CO2 gas to demonstrate properties of a gas- that it has mass, and that it is actually there (you pour CO2 gas out of a jar onto a candle, and it extinguishes it. Voila! proof!) Should be sweet!
Anyway, it will be interesting to see how it all turns out…can’t wait!
The Perfect Comic Strip!!!
Written by Kristen on April 2nd, 2010
My boyfriend sent me this comic and I thought it was a must-add to my blog! (I loooove Bones, so this has a special place in my heart…) It’s great that kids might be hooked into science from TV shows, but they should also realize that it’s not always realistic… so just as we are showing our students that science is for everyone (and can be used to investigate almost anything their curiosity desires), we should show them that there are limitations too – and that everything they see on TV is not real!
Eating, Drinking, and Singing Chemistry…
Written by Kristen on March 28th, 2010So this entire unit has revolved around many everyday substances that you can eat or drink…water, oil, food coloring, Kool-Aid and concentrated Welch’s juice, candy….the list goes on… It was certainly my plan to use these to help link the chemistry concepts to my students’ everyday lives, but it was all them that brought the singing to class!
I gave my students about two weeks to come up with a project on solubility- their only requirements were that they needed to describe how a solution forms, what types of substances mix with each other, and what affects solubility. They could present the information in any way they chose- pictorally, as a story, as a brochure, as a song…whatever they felt most inclined to do. My CT wasn’t sure how much extra learning they would get out of this project, but the outcome of their projects on Friday were stupendous!!! I believe that most of the students were able to learn the concepts better because either they put them together in a format that they could better understand or because they simply had to learn the concepts well enough to present.
There were numerous brochures, a few stories, and two songs- both which blew me away! It was my last class that really put a lot of effort into their projects- and they were so pumped on Friday- everyone had so much fun! I knew we were really in for it when there was a Solutions…their song I think will stick with everyone in that class whenever they think of solutions! The second group to do a song centered it around none other than … me! I was blown away… I never thought that’s what they had been composing in secret in the chemical storage room…
Overall, it was fantastic that the students were able to bring their own talents and interests into the chemistry classroom, things that would not normally have a place.
Cooking with Chemistry
Written by Kristen on March 20th, 2010My mom (ever on top of what’s in the newpaper) sent me an article a month or so ago talking about a teacher in Syracuse, and her innovative way to get her students into (and eating) chemistry. I have since thought about contacting her to ask her about her methods and for some ideas. In searching for the article this week, I found an article in Chemical and Engineering News (Burning New in Chemical Education: Biennial Conference Spotlights Communication, Demonstrations, and Food Science – Vol. 84, #34, August 2006) that talked more about her cooking in chemistry, and I have put an excerpt from this below:
Sally B. Mitchell, of Manlius, is an advocate for the metric system. Winners of the 2009 James Bryant Conant Award in High School Chemistry Teaching, Mitchell uses metric measuring devices when using cooking to explain chemistry principles to her students at East Syracuse-Minoa High School.
One of the most popular offerings in the smorgasbord of food for thought for BCCE attendees was a series of workshops and talks on the chemistry of food. As a rule, chemistry students don’t get to taste their experiments. Food chemistry is the exception, allowing students to experience chemical concepts with all five senses. It’s also a safe and inexpensive way to engage high school students, according to Sally B. Mitchell, a high school chemistry teacher at New York’s East Syracuse-Minoa High School.
Mitchell has been teaching chemistry through food science since 1984. It’s an idea her colleagues used to scoff at, until they saw how much chemistry her students were learning and retaining. Now Mitchell’s Kool-Aid lab, which uses solutions of the popular powdered drink to explain concepts like concentration, molarity, and molality, is used by teachers throughout Syracuse.
The lab has become so popular, Mitchell said, that when she goes to the grocery store to buy the dozens of boxes of Kool-Aid she needs, the young check-out clerks will usually ask her if she’s a chemistry teacher. Mitchell said when that happens she quizzes the clerks, and they usually still remember the concepts from the lab.
Mitchell’s students cook peanut brittle and fudge while they discuss sugar chemistry and structural isomerism in carbohydrates. They also learn about fermentation, gluten polymerization, and gas laws by baking bread.
“Cooking is a fabulous vehicle for teaching chemistry,” said plenary speaker Shirley O. Corriher. A chef, food scientist, and cookbook author, Corriher once famously deep-fried an audience member’s wristwatch on live television. She spoke about her own evolution from chemist to cook to renowned food scientist, throwing in tips for cooking perfect eggs and pie crusts.
“Chemistry can take you anywhere you want to go,” exclaimed Corriher, who has rubbed elbows with actor George Clooney and rapper Snoop Dogg. She fields calls from world-renowned chefs when their biscotti won’t set or when the rice in their paella won’t cook through. Julia Child turned to her to find out why sautéing baby spinach leaves turned the veggies bitter.
Further search online brought me to none other than the Journal of Chemical Education (Triple Point: Chemist, Teacher, Student. Three Phases of a Substance Exist in Equilibrium, Vol 86, Issue #9, September 2009) with an article by her which included some of her labs. I fully recommend everyone to check it out- even those not teaching chemistry! It is a wonderful peak into the life of a truly creative teacher who has succeeded in making science (especially chemistry) applicable to all her students’ lives. Her example is one that we may all hope to live up to!
I am so happy that I looked into this sooner than later, because I am going to try to fit in two of her lab ideas for my solutions unit that I am currently doing (using Kool Aide)! I can’t wait!
Group Activities – How to make sure students are getting what they need to out of them?
Written by Kristen on March 13th, 2010I have tried my best to give the students as many group activities as possible – hands-on as well as just working with concepts in general. From most of my observations during the activities and their finished products, they have gone smashingly well – they enjoy working in groups, they have made come up with great questions (such as in the Intermolecular Forces activity), and the things I have collected show that they are on the right track as far as understanding the concepts go. But, my question is: how do I make sure that every student is getting the maximum benefit out of working in groups? How can I ensure that they are all accountable for the work that they do in their groups?
These questions arise out of the fact I observed some students not really participating and simply waiting for their group mates to come up with answers from which they would either use or copy (I assume when I was not in their vicinity), or that in follow-up activities, some students show little memory or understanding of concepts they worked with in their groups. For example, instead of just giving students notes on the properties of solids, I gave them a graphic organizer which they were to fill in details of the four types of crystalline solids (found in their book) and then cut out and match the four example pictures to the correct type of solid. They all completed the sheets to apparent satisfaction, yet when I asked some warm up questions the following day, they had barely any recollection of what they had done in the graphic organizer activity. I thus decided to do a follow-up activity a day or two later with Loops, to give them more practice with the concepts (which I think helped to a certain degree, but because the topic was not an essential one to the unit, I moved on.) I realize that I need to get better at doing a more active closure of each lesson to reinforce what was learned in that lesson, but I would have thought, especially with the matching of the pictures of examples, that the activity would have better than just doing notes, but is something like that better understood through notes?
Other activities have been extremely positive and useful though- like the posters I had my students make in groups describing the different states of matter. The first day we worked on them, they had to draw the three states on a molecular level and describe the relative level of energy, spacing, and motion of the particles along with three physical properties of each state (things they had gone over in another group activity from the day before – another one that was I believe very successful in that it had them critically think about some questions, apply the physical properties beyond what they were seeing to other real-life phenomena, and explain in terms of molecular motion and energy their observations of why warm water allows diffusion to happen faster in cold water.)
I wanted the students to hang their posters wherever they wanted in my effort to give them some choice and say in decorating their classroom. They loved it! They were quite proud of their posters (some were quite artistically done too!) and were put up all over (I just told them anywhere but the Smart Board, the flag, or the fish tanks) including above my CT’s desk in the office and outside of the classroom in the hallway (part of the Atrium in the science wing.) I had them add to their posters after we went over the different phase changes.
Their final product connected and condensed many of the topics that were included in the unit, all in one very visual poster. I was so happy that when asked questions about phase changes, energy changes, ect, the students would refer back to their posters. Sweet!
Seeing Chemistry in the World Around Us
Written by Kristen on March 5th, 2010For an introduction to intermolecular forces this week, I created some activity stations that allowed the students to observe and experience some phenomena relating to surface tension, viscosity, and boiling point – all results of the strength of these intermolecular attractions - before we talked about the formal types of intermolecular forces and their effects on the properties of liquids. I wanted them to have some hands-on experience first so that they would have something to connect the terms and concepts to, and also give them the opportunity to come up with the the relationships between the phenomena and the strength of intermolecular forces themselves! It was pretty amazing the questions they were asking, and what they were able to conclude themselves from their investigations! It was fun, the students were engaged, and I absolutely loved that almost 100% of the students predicted that you could not make a pin float on water – so what a fantastic discrepant event! All the time it took to make this activity was well worth even just the amazed – and intrigued- expressions that I saw on almost every students face when the magic worked!
Below are some images I took of the stations, though I forgot to take pictures when we were actually doing the activity!
Viscosity Station
Surface Tension Station
Pin Floating on Water at Surface Tension Station
Nail Floating on Honey at Surface Tension Station
Boiling Point Station
Boiling Point and Hydrogen Bonding Station
Two of the four stations, those about viscosity and surface tension were the best – definitely the most fun and a lovely sticky mess (mostly because we were using honey to compare viscosities at different temperatures and to compare to the surface tension of water.) What I loved about these stations is that it got them thinking about everyday substances in a new way, so hopefully the next time they use honey or nail polish remover (at least for the girls) they might recall what we were learning! I read an article about a teacher in Syracuse that teaches all of her chemistry topics through cooking – that would be a fabulous class to observe! [Her classroom comes equipped with a bunch of ovens!!] Sometime when I have time, I hope to contact her and maybe borrow some ideas!
SNOW DAY!!…and reflection
Written by Kristen on February 27th, 2010So I guess it’s not any less exciting to have a snow day as a teacher than as a student. I happily spent my snow day being a normal human being- sleeping, watching movies, and going grocery shopping…and I did do a little bit of planning.
My biggest “arrow” from this week:
Having other plans up my sleeve. I had planned to do a little bit of review on the Kinetic Molecular Theory and gases will all of my classes, and then give them a quiz (my CT suggested a multiple choice quiz, and I changed it to have some multiple choice and some short answer. One of these questions I was quite proud of…I made sure the students were learning something new and interesting [that some fish have a gas bladder they can control the size of so they can change their buoyancy - cool!]) My regents class verbally expressed their unease with all that we had been doing (even though they had been doing fine on their bell quizzes), so I decided to take more time to review with them instead of giving them the quiz. Because I had not planned for this, my review was very rough and unorganized and I’m not sure all that beneficial, so I might as well have given them the quiz! (Though they did just fine on the quiz the next day.) So for next time – I should have problems picked out to use for review, and not expect to discuss questions with the class. (I have found it difficult to go over homework questions as a class because many students will get bored, whether they got it or not.) Also, my CT suggested that I should have just given them the quiz and not been such a softy. Perhaps that is true as well, but I have qualms about sending my students to slaughter if it is my fault that they are not adequately prepared! (Quizzes and tests are the majority of their grade in these classes.)
My biggest “plus” from this week:
I tried out the “feelings spectrum” that Lisa had done for us in EDU 448 with my students the day of their quiz. I had drawn the double arrowed line on paper and was going to tape it to a wall and have the students use colored tape to mark their answer to the question, but when I got to school I discovered that we had a ton of little round, colored magnets!! I had the students each pick up blue ones on their way in and use those instead on the white board. The question that they had to answer was: “How comfortable are you with the Kinetic Molecular Theory?” The spectrum that corresponded to this went from “Kinetic Molecular WHAT?” to “OK. I kind of understand it” to “Great! I can teach it to someone else.” The students loved doing it, and I was given a great sense of where they were (though I suspected a few students in one class of being over-confident – more students in my regents class claimed to be more on the “I can teach it” side than the honors classes!) I wanted to have all the classes add a red one before we got to the quiz to see if their feelings had changed after our review of the Kinetic Molecular Theory during class, but we ran out of time except for one class – and there was an overall improvement! I quite like this type of formative assessment and I will definitely use it again!
Where Does the Time Go?
Written by Kristen on February 20th, 2010I am amazed as always at how fast time flies. I have spent my time reviewing material on my next topic (Solids and Liquids) and checking out all of the materials that my CT had and trying to invent some fun, innovative activities for the students. Presently, they receive a thick packet of notes that corresponds to a PowerPoint that is gone over in class, they do some practice problems in class, and they do some short “labs” (most of which I consider activities and not labs). It was a much slower process than I thought for my brain to reconfigure the information linked to these traditional activities to a new, constructive format, even with all of the practice and theory that we have had! I have only seen three high school chemistry classrooms now: my own when I took AP Chem and two classrooms at my new placement, one of them being my new CT’s, and none of them strayed from the traditional way of doing things, and I just wish that I had seen one innovative chemistry teacher in action to give me more direction in how I should structure my lessons. I also struggled with deciding what activities would be considered too lame or juvenile for high school students (I have ideas from my 8th grade placement, but are they all transferable to high school?) I did eventually come up with something akin to a mess- but this is what inquiry and constructing knowledge is all about, right? I hope that since I have done this once now, the rest will be easier. All in all, the transformation process was like trying to give a cat a bath…very difficult.