Assessment that can be used....

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

     It seems that we bombard kids with assessments.  It is getting to the point where it is crazy.  Also, it is hard to believe that these assessments are being used for positive change.  So here is one possible scenario.  Professor Emeritus Anthony Lawson developed some years ago a scientific reasoning test that students can take and a teacher can tell if they are "concrete" or "abstract" thinkers.  It has been a well researched diagnostic tool.  Our students take this as part of the Project TIMU program.  I have never really looked closely at it because of time and I did not fully understand it.  Something happened to make me take a second look...

     I had a few students who seemed to do well overall but struggled on the semester exam.  I went back and looked at the Lawson test.  Students who struggled with proportional reasoning on the Lawson test had a hard time on the exam and other similar tests involving proportional reasoning.  Students who did well on the Lawson test did well on the proportional reasoning parts of the exam.  So, if I just help students with proportional reasoning, problem solved....well...not exactly.

     The Lawson test is a diagnostic tool that tries to help teachers establish what "developmental level" a student is at.  Here is the rub...the only intervention for this is time.  It does NOT mean that students can't do chemistry, won't get into college or will not be able to have a career in science.  It does mean that at this TIME their proportional reasoning abilities are different than another kid.  Chemistry is chalked full of proportional reasoning problems.  They just need a bit more time.  And they may need to work much harder than I student who is at a higher level of proportional reasoning skills in the same class.   So what now...

     One of my projects is to find a simple way to administer the Lawson test, get feedback and immediate response from the teacher.  If I find out that 80% of my students struggle with proportional reasoning than I will probably drastically alter my instruction and I want to communicate this in a positive way to parents, kids and teachers.  I think the technology can allow us to do this...I will keep you posted.

     On a lighter note, I hope to start ionic and covalent bonding in Academic.  First and foremost, we are going to start with a macroscale lab before we hit models or the symbolic.  Found a cool PHET simulation that might help.  We shall see....

Chemistry, Meditation and Bill Nye...

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

     A tough week...had exams this week and more so now than ever before it seems that we have students stressed to record levels...pretty much to the point at which it is unhealthy.  Someone told me that a class or a test does not create mental illness, however, I still need to ask myself, what part of this should I own?  How can I help students?  It would be one thing if it were just my class, chemistry or our school, but the more I look, the more the numbers are going up across the country and even in Great Britain.  Here is a crazy idea...students are more "connected" now than ever before.  Facebook, twitter, snap chat, instagram...and on and on.  Students even sleep with their phones.  They (the phones and the students) are never "off".  I wonder how many people even could say when the last time their phone was turned off and more than 50 feet away from them?  So here is the idea (not mine)...when a person's brain always has to respond, it causes stress.  Stress causes depression and depression can lead to further mental breakdown.  So, the question is, what do we do?  There is no way people will let go of the phone.  Maybe, they can "shut" their brain off for just a few minutes...and practice "mindfullness".  It was introduced by John Kabat-Zin.  It is now being used in major corporations, med schools, hospitals and, you guessed it, schools.  It can easily be started with just 10 minutes of work per day.  The following two Ted talks do a much better job of explaining this than I.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9KhDjGGHCk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mlk6xD_xAQ

I also learned something about "proportional reasoning".  I kind of intuitively knew that if a student struggled with proportional reasoning, they would struggle in chemistry.  As my wife said, when I tried to explain it to her, "It sounds like it is pattern recognition."  It is.  I had some students show signs of struggle with proportional reasoning problems.  I noticed that this was predicted by the Lawson test on scientific reasoning they took at the begining of the year.  I went back and checked.  Most, but not all, students who struggled with some of the proportional reasoning problems, struggled with the last giant problem on the test.  Those who aced the problem on the test seemed to do really well on the Lawson test.  My hope is to pay better attention to the Lawson test and work at figuring out better ways of teaching proportional reasoning.  I am aleady working at talking to other teachers and professors.

    I also heard an interesting podcast by Bill Nye, Neil Tyson and Sir Richard Attenboruogh.  They were talking about what the key is to personally engage people in science.  Seeing as how these three are probably the three most engaging science teachers alive, I perked up and listened.  First, you need passion (check).  Second, you have to know your stuff (I am trying).  Third, you need personally take time to look the person in the eye and invite them to learn science.  This is where I struggle.  Sometimes, with 100 + students, it is tough to personally engage each and every one...but it does not mean I cannot try.  My goal this week...every day make sure I try to talk to the students I come in contact with and attempt to convince them they are the most important scientist in the world....here comes the new semester....

Molecular weight of Butane and Quantum Numbers....

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

     We just got back from break and were in the middle of gas laws.  I got a great lab from Flinn.  Students took the mass of a Bic lighter, the temperature of water and the atmospheric pressure.  The collect about 90 mL of butane over water in an inverted graduated cylinder.  They had to subtract out the water vapor gas and convert the volume to STP, find the moles and find the molar mass of butane.  They put the information in a spreadsheet through google classroom, I pasted it into a spreadsheet grader and printed. Overall, it worked really well and the spreadsheet did most of the work.  I think this is a keeper.  The conversations were great as students debated how to solve the problems.

     Next, I introduced quantum numbers to Academic with a POGIL.  As I started to give them some problems, I was hoping they would do some simple orbital diagrams.  They included the diagrams as energy levels.

      Not what I was expecting, but I will take it.  Where to go from here.  I gave students a few problems but I want to go back and clearly define levels, orbitals and sublevels.  I think when I try the quantum lab, I am going to have them get the data first and then say, "How do we explain this?" and then research paramagnetic and diamagnetic.  This will be a great way to go into coulombic attraction and bonding.   I think I am turning this into an action research project... I will keep you posted....

New Years and New Beginnings.....

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

     I was never big into new year resolutions.  I always believed that if I had to change something, I would change it and not wait until an arbitrary data in which society tells us it is a good idea to start fresh.  However, there is also a new semester coming up.  I have to ask myself, what could I do better to help kids?

     Formative Assessment.  Not that I am an expert, but I never want to get an "expert blindspot".  I never want to "assume" students know stuff that I think they know.  I want to have the evidence.  I hope to do short, fast formative assessments.  My goal is once a week.

     Learning Cycle.  This has been around for 100 years, is supported by research, and is pushed by the american modeling association.  Why?  It works.  Basically, start with a macroscale example (labs) and follow with the symbolic and particulate to explain and mode.

     Research.  It follows numbers one and two (see above).  I plan on doing action research on a lab that provides experimental evidence for quantum numbers.  It leads to reactivity, bonding and electronegativity.  Here are my pre and post lab questions.....

What is ionic bonding?

What is covalent bonding?

What are the electrons doing when bonding occurs?

What is your evidence?

It will be interesting to see what happens. I will keep you posted.....