I said last week that I'd get back to the rest of the safety topics for this blog after talking with my cooperating teacher. The reducing sugar/amylase lab they did today actually tied in really well with the topic of safety, as well. Some of the environmental hazards in the sixth grade science classroom include transition metal salts, like copper(II) sulfate. The waste is stored in a jug and brought to the high school, where it is picked up on a regular basis. It doesn't sound like strong acids and bases are used a lot, but they are neutralized and flushed down the drain. In regards to any written safety policies in place, my cooperating teacher has paper copies of MSDS's for all of the chemicals they use, and she keeps her Right-to-Know safety training updated. The inventory is in her head; the chemicals and equipment are stored in cabinets all along the walls of the classroom. If I were to add any safety features
to the lab, I would make an Excel or Quartzy inventory, but that’s just because
I would have a hard time remembering the stock in my head (I do know
researchers who just have a feeling for what kinds of starting and work-up
material they have on-hand…Huh…).
Besides the safety considerations I mentioned last week, other factors for when students do lab are that they are well-prepped for the experiments by reading the procedure ahead of time and listening to the pre-lab lecture, there is an atmosphere of respect in the classroom (so students know they are accountable for their actions and are expected to behave logically), students wear their goggles at all times, and students are not allowed to leave until cleaning up (so there are fewer mystery spills on the bench tops than there would be if students were accustomed fleeing as soon as the bell rang).
Reflections for the Week
I think giving the kids scientific know-how (both the scientific DCI and practices from the NGSS) at their age is actually a safety feature--they'll be able to handle themselves in high school and college labs, and they'll even be able to think through chemistry safety issues at home (e.g., don't mix cleaning supplies in a poorly ventilated bathroom). These students know the names of the glassware (which is not a given in a survey chemistry course in college) and have obviously been taught lab technique, such as the use of the stirring rod, how to pour 10 mL of solution from a graduated cylinder, and using a hot plate.
Of course, lab technique can be improved upon, but these students are basically competent in the lab. The lab they did today is something that
easily could have been modified from a college lab. Unlike what I saw of the
Korean educational system, where youngsters are expected to do math,
composition, science, etc., at all ages (as soon as they are able to), the
American motto seems to be: let them slide while they’re young, until you have
to teach them about enzymes or complex systems, rather than to differentiate
and have students try to reach their actual potential.
Of course, the students today exhibited different levels of
understanding; some students could be talked through the reasoning process to
get to the point where they could explain what their control was, why they were
doing what they were doing, etc. This wasn’t the case for everyone
Tuesday
One result of the conference last week was that we decided if we didn't implement teaching strategies and tools immediately, we never would--it would just go on the back-burner. One of the results of that is that I am implementing R.'s app from Methods in my class. Tonight, we started learning the background for the metabolism debate. We spent a lot of time on potential energy, cleaning up the mess of energy I had made previously. Also, we watched a Neil deGrasse Tyson clip on the origins of life. It was a springing off point on brainstorming which sides students wanted to start on for the debate, and their homework for Thursday is to read up on their side. Since one of the key components of the debate is what the earth actually was like back in the day, I am posting a link to R.'s Earthviewer app and will show it to students on Thursday. Both sides will have arguments (if they pull arguments from the assigned reading) that hinge upon the heavier bombardment and alternate atmosphere and temperature of early earth--R.'s app will help students to actually SEE what that looks like for some context.
Also, one of my students thought the NSF case study was too canned, so she and I are going to make a third side to the debate (since it is supposed to be collaborative and not a solo research activity) and argue that chirality is key to the origins of life. I'm excited that she is going to the beat of her own drum, and I am excited to see what we will find out!
Anyway, besides stealing...er...appropriating apps, I "taught" the citric acid cycle the way that complex systems are presented at the middle school--by having students research key topics collaboratively and then posting their results online as formative assessments (and as study guides for the whole class). This also allowed for more differentiation, since some of the students already are familiar with the citric acid cycle and would be really bored to listen to me talk about what acetyl-CoA is.
One thing that I did poorly tonight was that I ran out of time--I need to get my pacing down and not get side-tracked. Also, I feel like students need more time on the citric acid cycle and on electron transport, especially with the functioning of ATP synthase. They just need more exposure to these complicated concepts although, as D. said, there are only 8 steps to the citric acid cycle.
Another thing that I did poorly was to explain more or less in depth to different groups, as I was monitoring their online research. I told some groups the motivations for what they were doing but not all, and I went into more detail with some groups than with others. The groups who got less teacher attention might think that I don't believe they can handle the greater detail or that I am not treating them respectfully (since I am not telling them why they are doing what they are doing). I need to be sure to show my high expectations for everyone and to not just have one or two groups benefiting from a Pygmalion effect.
One last thing that I really screwed up was to not take advantage of the cooperative groups and the investigations of the day to further differentiate. There were a couple of groups that ended early, with little to do, and I should have given differentiation even further considerations than I did. I was obviously not planning on having D.&J. and J.&D. (two different groups) finish early and just wait for everyone else....
Other "borrowing" that I did was a reverse jigsaw puzzle today on the different pathways of glucose, which is based on my methods professor's recommendations, and we used the website I learned at the high school (info.gram) to structure the jigsaw. I can't remember why, but the reason why I also added Venn diagrams in was based on something J. said at the conference about jigsaws--something she said just made everything fall into place. There is stealing...er...appropriating...all around!! Strategies and the integrations of technology that did work tonight were thanks to my motivated students and what I can borrow from other educators. What this tells me is that, as part of our professional development, we need each other. We need to bounce ideas off of each other, interacting in formal and informal contexts. That is the only way things will ever "fall into place," even when things still do go wrong!
Tuesday
One result of the conference last week was that we decided if we didn't implement teaching strategies and tools immediately, we never would--it would just go on the back-burner. One of the results of that is that I am implementing R.'s app from Methods in my class. Tonight, we started learning the background for the metabolism debate. We spent a lot of time on potential energy, cleaning up the mess of energy I had made previously. Also, we watched a Neil deGrasse Tyson clip on the origins of life. It was a springing off point on brainstorming which sides students wanted to start on for the debate, and their homework for Thursday is to read up on their side. Since one of the key components of the debate is what the earth actually was like back in the day, I am posting a link to R.'s Earthviewer app and will show it to students on Thursday. Both sides will have arguments (if they pull arguments from the assigned reading) that hinge upon the heavier bombardment and alternate atmosphere and temperature of early earth--R.'s app will help students to actually SEE what that looks like for some context.
Also, one of my students thought the NSF case study was too canned, so she and I are going to make a third side to the debate (since it is supposed to be collaborative and not a solo research activity) and argue that chirality is key to the origins of life. I'm excited that she is going to the beat of her own drum, and I am excited to see what we will find out!
Anyway, besides stealing...er...appropriating apps, I "taught" the citric acid cycle the way that complex systems are presented at the middle school--by having students research key topics collaboratively and then posting their results online as formative assessments (and as study guides for the whole class). This also allowed for more differentiation, since some of the students already are familiar with the citric acid cycle and would be really bored to listen to me talk about what acetyl-CoA is.
One thing that I did poorly tonight was that I ran out of time--I need to get my pacing down and not get side-tracked. Also, I feel like students need more time on the citric acid cycle and on electron transport, especially with the functioning of ATP synthase. They just need more exposure to these complicated concepts although, as D. said, there are only 8 steps to the citric acid cycle.
Another thing that I did poorly was to explain more or less in depth to different groups, as I was monitoring their online research. I told some groups the motivations for what they were doing but not all, and I went into more detail with some groups than with others. The groups who got less teacher attention might think that I don't believe they can handle the greater detail or that I am not treating them respectfully (since I am not telling them why they are doing what they are doing). I need to be sure to show my high expectations for everyone and to not just have one or two groups benefiting from a Pygmalion effect.
One last thing that I really screwed up was to not take advantage of the cooperative groups and the investigations of the day to further differentiate. There were a couple of groups that ended early, with little to do, and I should have given differentiation even further considerations than I did. I was obviously not planning on having D.&J. and J.&D. (two different groups) finish early and just wait for everyone else....
Other "borrowing" that I did was a reverse jigsaw puzzle today on the different pathways of glucose, which is based on my methods professor's recommendations, and we used the website I learned at the high school (info.gram) to structure the jigsaw. I can't remember why, but the reason why I also added Venn diagrams in was based on something J. said at the conference about jigsaws--something she said just made everything fall into place. There is stealing...er...appropriating...all around!! Strategies and the integrations of technology that did work tonight were thanks to my motivated students and what I can borrow from other educators. What this tells me is that, as part of our professional development, we need each other. We need to bounce ideas off of each other, interacting in formal and informal contexts. That is the only way things will ever "fall into place," even when things still do go wrong!
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