Camp Lessons
I attended 5th grade camp with my son, Stevie, this week. Camp Miniwanca is a beautiful property between the vastness of Lake Michigan and a much smaller inland Stony Lake. The program is based upon the "experiential learning cycle". Small groups of campers work through a series of challenges. The counselors and chaperones allow the children to struggle, disagree and fail. Of course, success is congratulated and enjoyed. Children choose their own goals for individual challenges, so they have an opportunity to strive for their "best self" and meeting or exceeding whatever goal they have made is celebrated. Children were given many team and individual responsibilities. Every part of the day at camp had a purpose. Stevie is the youngest of my children. I have chaperoned several camps before and I attended a few as a child myself and one as an adult participant. This one was by far the best run camp I have attended. Many camps give lip service to experiential learning, but the thing that I observed at Camp Miniwanca that impressed me was there attentiveness to the entire process of the experiential learning cycle.
Lego Periodic Table
Build a periodic table out of Lego blocks.
Earth Day 2014
Earth Day is just around the corner. If you are looking for some ideas to highlight environmental issues, the Journal of Chemical Education is offering free access to many articles and activities that you will find interesting. Check them out!
Using Research Journals in High School Chemistry
I attended professional development provided by the VanAndel Education Institute (VAEI) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, that provided an opportunity to observe scientists at the VanAndel Institute engage in a journal club.
Cross-Discipline Discussions on Energy
Have you ever thought about the ways we, as chemistry teachers, talk about the concept of energy?
Chemical Educational Foundation Activities & Challenges
I just recently became aware of the Chemical Educational Foundation® (CEF), a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting youth science education. They have developed a K-8 science curriculum supplement that recently won a Teachers’ Choice Award for the Classroom.
It's all about the apps: EMD PTE
Having completed a unit on stoichiometry, I was looking to review with my HS students some key topics before Spring Break. I had received from FLINN scientific their "It's Elementary--March Madness" activity:
Using Educreations App on the iPad To Interact with Students
In this post I'll describe how I use an iPad App, Educreations, to interact with my students in a few different scenarios. First, I use it to answer questions sent to me by email. Second, I use it to create simple help videos for students relating to our work.
Chemistry in Past and New Science Frameworks and Standards: Gains, Losses, and Missed Opportunities
I've read this recent JCE article a couple times and have been thinking about its potential impact on our K12 community as we begin to consider the challenges and the opportunities associated with the NGSS.
Using Twitter for a Backchannel Chat During a Fish Bowl Discussion
In a previous post, I discussed the work of my grade 10 class as we read the non-fiction story, The Case of the Frozen Addicts. We've continued working our way through the book, taking one class every two weeks to delve into the issues presented. Just this week, we engaged in a fish-bowl discussion. To help steer the discussion, I started the class with a quick warm-up activity asking students to suggest topics or questions that they would want to talk through in the fish bowl.