an observation
my kids finished a test Thursday and were going to be introduced to a new chapter on Friday. I started with one class by having them do a bit of “guided reading” from the book to give them some knowledge about upcoming discussions in class on states of matter and phase changes. The kids for the most part did o.k. they plodded along and answered questions from the book.
with my second period class I showed them a video from IS that was 18 minutes long. during that time a chemistry professor was interviewed. during his interview he did probably a dozen simple (if you have access to the chemicals and equipment (I don’t)) experiments explaining and demonstrating phase changes. We had a difficult time completing the video in a 50+ minute class because of the discussions that went on due to the video.
c-scope called for running a fan and having the kids try and catch the air, showing a piece of ice melt, and leaving a container of water open overnight, and making a tri-fold about plasma.
all of my classes except for first period went the IS route.
September 23rd, 2007 at 3:16 pm
I assume, as a teacher, you liked the IS route. What did you like about it?
September 23rd, 2007 at 4:49 pm
assuming the intent of the day was to introduce new concepts and if you are into the 5e kool-aid that is being pushed I would say that the video demonstrations and class discussion best accomplished the engage task. I also took the opportunity to discuss career options that were demonstrated.
I suppose that one could argue the guided reading provided as much background information as the video. And I am not one to argue the value of practicing the skill of reading. During the next week as we further discuss the topics perhaps I will, or will not, be able to tell a difference in the classes that did the reading and those that did not.
A better solution would have been actual demonstrations in my room, but I do not have access to either, nor mercury, nor hydrogen gas. In fact I was told Friday that I still did not have access to budgetary dollars to purchase supplies for upcoming labs.