It's starting to work...and it is fourth quarter...

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

     Between trying to infuse the particulate models and guided inquiry, I am starting to be a believer. So we are trying to do heating and cooling in one of my chemistry courses.  Every time I have done the lab where kids solve for the specific heat of metals, they get the data, plug in some numbers from an example and come up with an answer.  If I change the problem slightly, they have no clue where or what the energy is really doing.  This time I started with the macro scale and we got great data for the cooling of lauric acid.  They wanted to know why it was flat.  So we dived into phase change diagrams.  This time, I used a technique from the American Modeling Teacher's Association (absolute best money ever spent...I heard about them from Mary Palmer and I met them at ACS in Dallas).

     Next, I had them draw these really cool energy diagrams on white boards and defend their answers for each diagram.  The great part of these diagrams is that they have to draw where the energy is going into or out of and show the change.  The AMTA information provides excellent examples and resources to show how to approach this concept.  I also had them match particulate level diagrams for each part of the cooling curve.  The conversations and dialogues were better than any I have had in years.  From here I hope to do an inquiry lab where they figure out how to find the specific heat of metals by drawing the diagrams first.  I will keep you posted.  I am hopeful....I will keep you posted...