Overview:

1. My Chemistry Teacher Philosophy
2. Shulman’s Knowledge Domains
3. Enhancing learning opportunities during experiments
4. Chemistry field trips
5. Acid Base Group Work and REDOX Poker

I find the simplicity and enormity of the task of teaching science and chemistry fascinating. Simple in the way two people can draw an idea with a stick in the sand and share knowledge. Simple in the way that kids can act out being atoms of water in different states and have that as an embedded reference point for the rest of their life. Simple in the way that most of what is in science and maths stems from unbreakable rules of nature as we know them. Enormous as the world itself, the variety of people and learning styles and the equality and hope that some basic learning can bring to everyone of us.

The classroom I hope to be apart of is

• accessible to all
• non judgemental
• relevant
• dynamic

From my blog reflecting on a personal learning experience:

I was never made to feel stupid about not understanding a step. I made a mistake at the final step but by giving me time to reflex I was able worked it out by myself.
I really felt that I did the teaching for myself and that my lecturer’s questions ordered and glued the process for me as the student. I am so glad I did this as it has given me some valuable insight to process of learning. Friday March 20th 2009

relevant

The dynamic nature of science developments and knowledge acquisition will be reflected in my chemistry education philosophy. It will continue to change and develop upon experience and ongoing professional development.

My understanding of PCK in the beginning of chemistry eduction. This diagram is very simplistic and shows a lack of conceptual understanding, first diagram. Upon 2 months of chemistry focused education and placement experience my understanding of PCK is better refined. While I still do do feel I have PCK in chemistry, my understanding of the other 6 domains is now more refined and will contribute greatly to developing PCK when teaching in the future. By analysing each domain ( see table below) I have been able to focus where I need to develop and thus I will be able to create relevant teaching education objectives for myself next year.

July 2009

October 2009

What Shulman’s Domains mean to me and how I plan to develop Chemistry PCK.

My reflection of VCE students during a prac:

“I also noticed that some students with procedure in hand still wanted a verbal account of what to do next.” 14/9/09

(From blog)

After this lesson I felt frustrated that students did not read the procedure and there was also limited opportunity for me to ask questions to extend their learning. This particular group of students were particularly engaged and enthusiastic during experiments (kinestic) and this was a contrast to other activities undertaken in the classroom. During my first placement I developed a pictorial representation exercise for year 8 science students to provide structure and a requirement to read the practical activity before they were able to start the experiment. This simply yet effective process was met with positive feedback from my Monash mentor. I decided to employ a similar method for the VCE chemistry class.

Mentor’s Feedback:

“Great to use picture/colours for students to follow (& think through) procedure”

Robyne

My Request of Students:

” Create a pictorial flow chart for the procedure you will undertake in tomorrows titration experiment.”

Outcome:

Those who did undertake the homework created pictorial step by step flow diagrams and asked numerous questions before the titration experiment began

An example of the outcome:

Student reflection:

From anonymous online survey question:

Think about a particular activity Ms Alexander did with you in class (for example Venn Diagram, practical, writing notes or working through a problem). Describe what you liked or did not like about this activity and explain why.

Response:

“The flow chart before the titration pracs. It really helped me understand step by step what we were doing, and because we did them the night before, i was more prepared and things were easier, rather then not knowing what to do.”

VCE Student

Supervising Teacher Response:

“Visual flow chart- step by step visual representation of the prac -GREAT IDEA”

Post class Reflection:

Students who undertook this activity were able to engage in discussion beyond the procedure. The energy needed to follow the procedure potentially can detract from the higher order thinking could be developed as a teacher or fellow students ask questions of a student. Problem solving was also possible when students where familiar with the process thus the experiment became more dynamic. I also benefited from undertaking the same homework activity as it lamented my understanding and helped me to develop higher order questioning of students. I imagine that as students became better that this activity it could be used as a tool for students to “storyboard” a prac which they may design or used to develop problem solving skills. The activity of drawing is also beneficial to develop the “left brain” “right brain” balance.

A wonderful opportunity to conduct a number of field trip with year 8 students during my placement was so rich for my understanding of classroom science principal in a practical application. A Waterwatch water quality testing activity for students enabled me to assess their higher order application of the theory.

These activities really embody my idea that Teaching science and chemistry can both SIMPLE  and yet enormously complicated. I do see myself utilising field trips as a regular part of my teaching.

Year 8 Science Lesson

5. Group Acid Base and REDOX Poker

Semester 1 Acid and Base Group Activity

Using a large scale group activity for year 10 students to “walk through” an ACID BASE reaction, see Diagram below. I was using the ideas based around Gardener’s

multiple intelligences and simply thought it might be another way for students to learn about acid base reactions. I did not read any literature or research other educator using this method.

Activity Summary:

This activity occurred after discussion about acid base reactions generally having predictabl

e outcomes, i.e Salt and water products.

Need a large space for student to be able to move around the classroom, each student is randomly assigned an ion sticker.

Student were then prompted to do the following:

• Analyse your assigned ion and determine if you are a cation or anion. (I would ask individuals to respond)

• Form an acid or base with another student

• Acids to the left of the room and bases to the right lined up in pairs

• A pair from each side of the room walk and meet in the middle and “react”

• Water to one side and salt to another. The water and salt groups mixed at the end. If uneven group have an extra H+ ion and discuss acidity of the final solution

  

Post Activity reflection:

“I thought today’s class worked really well. It is wonderful to see how a large group activity can work. I don’t think these students do much large scale group work and I spent lots of my time trying to get them to listen. It was hard to see if they benefited from doing the activity. Do they now know acid and bases better. I am not sure?”

April 2009

Supervisor Feedback

“you need to get students to be more quiet in the group activity and ensure that they are take part”

April 2009

Semester 2 REDOX Poker

Using a large scale group activity for VCE chemistry students to reconstruct a REDOX reaction and develop an undertanding of the electrochemical series. This group were particularly responsive to activities that had a physical component, ie prac work. I researched chemical education REDOX activities and found the article:

 

Lomax, J. F. (1994). Kinetic Classroom: Acid-Base and Redox Demonstrations with Student Movement. Journal of Chemical Education, 71(5), 428-30.

This document helped me to formulate the activity and drew my attention to area of difficulty for student particularly the concept that oxidation is caused by the reductant. Lomax discussed the order in which one might introduced certain words.

Activity Summary:

Student were provided with an electrochemical series chart and a unique envelope labeled with a metal cation or anion symbol on one side and metal solid symbol on the flip side. There were poker chips to represent electrons also available.

Students were prompted to

• form groups according to their position in the electrochemical series chart i.e. Eo Positive and Negative
• Discuss in the group who has more “strength” to take an electron and thus are the better reductant
• One group was then given poker chips to “fill their envelope” and then turn the envelope around to display the solid form.
• The entire class as then asked to “mingle” and find another student who they could demonstrate a REDOX reaction with.
• Students where asked to get into groups of 3 and determine which REDOX reaction was most likely to occur when using the electrochemical series

Post Activity Reflection:

I was surprised with the potential learning form this activity. Why did I use a commercially available electrochemical series? The day before we had performed a metal reactivity experiment : The electrochemical series of metals. [From Chemistry One, Practical manual]

I could have got student to use their own generated series. This would have provided more connections with their prac and the theory as well as ownership over the data for students. I perhaps should have incorporated a demonstration with the envelopes in the beginning so that students overcame confusion about what to do. I relied on my supervising teacher to help with the activity. I made particular note of her clear language and questioning. It is wonderful to see an experience practitioner who has seen confusion about particular aspect of a topic. I hope that in my first teaching experience I have some teachers who I can rely on for support and have experience I can draw upon. Norma was able to determine a students understanding by their response to particular questions. I find myself only being able to see when they have it “right or wrong” and struggle with the gradient in between. Post activity discussion and reflection with Norma enabled me to see that my content knowledge need to be more precise and I need to put more energy into my own learning, particularly the nitty gritty. So far my enthusiasm for chemistry and science has allowed me to mask my content knowledge somewhat. I have discovered how to provide myself a “need to know” situation so that I can be motivated to learn the content. This activity fell short of it’s potential because I was not emersed in the content understanding, so to avoid this for the future I need to put in the hard work to “know my chemistry”.

Supervising Teacher Response:

” I love the REDOX activity”

“How strong am I at holding on to my electrons? great key question

“The students enjoyed the exercise and the ability to converse with each other- I think though some were confused with what to do”

Where to from here?

I see a definite growth from semester 1 placement compared with semester 2. I certainly see large scale group activities as a part of the classroom. There is an element of needing to “train” students as how to be involved in group activity. I found having literature to support my ideas helps me to channel my objectives, however having a more concise overview of the content and pedagogy will enhance my ability to develop and tailor dynamic group activities with positive learning outcomes. There needs to be more fluidity between learning activities rather than having them as separate learning components. I need ask myself. How does this connect with what we have done and where we are headed to next?

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