Blog for Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Thoughts for Wednesday by Cathee, Sonja and Kim
Today in the “One Room Schoolhouse” we learned about crystallization, microscopy and polarization. Some of the concepts that were used/taught during the session would be above the learning ability of most of the children I teach. I can see how some of the concepts can be incorporated into my curriculum by keeping it simple and showing the students the actual “growing” of crystals. Crystal shape is a difficult concept for many of my junior high students.
During the afternoon session, we used a calorimeter and different types of thermometers—these were definitely concepts that could be understood and taught by the older students to the younger students. I (Cathee) have done the calorimeters, but this was an alternative way of using the same technique to learn different concepts. These lessons covered applied to standards such as safety, laboratory technique, use of the microscope and cooperative learning. We also used technology when we used the LabQuest and the temperature probe. The elementary standards that were touched on were transfer of energy, preparing slides and students being able to classify matter based on physical and chemical properties.
Once again the hours that we are in class and are doing experiments go much faster than just during lecture. This is definitely a reflection that we are going to try to keep in mind as we prepare for each of our classes this fall.