mccorchem

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According to this article, spending is increasing for technology in most districts. As the chart shows, hardware and software spending is increasing, making training and tech support a smaller portion of the budget. Good news for teachers, they may get the technology they want in the classroom from their own district. 

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A great list of ways to get money for technology in the classroom. Bookmark this one!

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See my notes on education grants via evernote

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At the beginning of the year I get student and parent permission to take photos of student lab and activities to put on my twitter or schoology. This picture is from a lab where students measured the amount of vitamin C in each citrus fruit by titrating with an iodine solution. 

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Double Replacement Reactions

A big part of the chem I curriculum is learning how to write chemical equations for various types of equations. One type is called double replacement reactions. To show students how it works, I show them a visual like this:

Those simple brackets go a long way in helping students remember what elements/ions pair up on the product (right) side of the equation.

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One way to get money for your class is to sign-up for a crowd-sourcing donation program like Donors Choose. If you have a specific goal in mind you can petition donors to give money to your cause. Almost half a billion dollars has been donated through the website so far!

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Recently, I’m finding students are forgetting the names of the glassware by the end of the year. A visual with the names is a great resource for reference. This visual would make a great poster for my classroom.

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Using Graphs in Social Studies

Graphs, visualizations of data, are a great tool for all subjects. Graphs can show data that is surprising to us and reveal human’s shortcomings in assessing statistics. The two graphs included show violent crime rates in the US in the first and perceptions of crime rates in the second. These graphs would make an excellent social studies lesson, tying in the recent RNC convention speech Donald Trump gave citing rising crime levels and promising to be the “law and order” president that makes people safe. 

While the first graph does not show crime in the most recent year, the overall trend over the past 20 years is a reduction in crime. 

(Source: Citylab.com; Data: FBI)

What does not appear to be decreasing is people’s perception of crime. The data below ends at 2011 and I would hypothesize that the proportion of people thinking crime increased would be up in future years, especially after the Michael Brown shootings in Ferguson, Missouri. The graph below is interesting. There has been a slight drop since the early 90′s in perceived crime which matched the actual drop in crime but since 2002 the overall trend is to believe that crime is increasing. The 2002 data was most interesting to me, I would expect that to come as a result of post-9/11 domestic peace. 

(Source: Gallup.com)

Showing these graphs to a class and having them analyze the data you could lead to a discussion about why Donald Trump’s speech may have helped him even though crime is lower than any other point in the past 25 years. Republicans were criticized for saying that people feel less safe after Trump’s speech but the truth is that people do believe they are less safe. Those people are wrong but that will not change their voting patterns. I think this could lead to a very interesting discussion about current politics.

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A thinglink visual of the ammonia molecule (NH3). Visuals are a good way to help students “see” what a molecule looks like.

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I wrote earlier in the week about Crash Course Chemistry. This is one of my favorite videos because of the graphics. Atomic orbitals are one of the more complex ideas from chemistry, partially because they arise from quantum mechanical wave functions. Hank doesn’t shy away from the quantum mechanics but shows some great 3-D images of what molecules actually look like according to the VSEPR theory of molecular orbitals.

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Podcasts are a good way to stay up to date on research in the field. Some of the information is above high school level but students can recognize terms like “redox” or “transition metals” from the high school chemistry course. I also enjoy hearing about the interdisciplinary research. Most chemistry work now blurs the lines between scientific disciplines.

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I found this research review to be interesting because it reveals the variety of results shown in using audiobooks. While some studies showed improvements in achievement, others lead to worse outcomes than traditional books. 

Personally, I am not a fan of audio books, I prefer to read actual text. Audio can certainly support students with learning disabilities and help motivate students but I would like to see more research to back up their benefits for typical students.

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Some of the benefits of using video in the classroom. 

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Youtube Channels in Chemistry

There are many great youtube channels for helping students master content as well as providing interesting science information. Here are three I use in class:

1. Crash Course

Crash course is offered for chemistry as well as many other disciplines including psychology, history, biology, and economics. Hank and John Green created short (10 to 15 minute) videos about academic content. The videos are a great explanation of the important points in introductory chemistry and I often post links on schoology for students to have an additional resource.

2. Sci Show

Like crash course, the Sci Show channel was started by Hank Green, who also hosts. Sci show tackles questions students may have or just fascinating science topics such as “What would happen if we killed all mosquitoes?” or 5 of the most dangerous chemicals in the world. The videos are interesting and often relevant to current events so they make a great resource for students to stay interested in science.

3. Healthcare Triage

Healthcare triage tackles medical issues. While not directly related to chemistry, it is a great resource for looking at the scientific method and evidence-based medicine. Often the information contradicts our current knowledge of medicine so I like to assign videos to students from time to time to expand scientific literacy.

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I love the ideas on this list, they go beyond the typical uses of videos in the classroom. #5 suggested recording an in-class experiment, something I never thought of but a great idea. I’m not sold on giving students video feedback over written feedback, but otherwise I think this list has great ideas.

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Schoology

At Downingtown East, both traditional and blended classes utilize Schoology as a learning management system (LMS). An LMS allows teachers to compile resources for students to access outside of class, communicate directly with students, and provide due dates. I really like Schoology, it was designed to look like a social media website and students find it easy to navigate. 

Schoology has great resources. I can set up folders for links and files in my course resources and post assignment due dates on the calendar. In addition, Schoology has a gradebook where you can make your own rubrics, discussion forums that you can link between classes and an option to grade student posts. I can also make quizzes which schoology will automatically grade. Schoology makes it easy to extend learning outside of class and help students stay organized. 

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