WebTools Projects
This presents my ideas for using web based tools in my classes for this year.
1. ChemMatters reading. Students will read back issue on a regular basis, perhaps every three weeks, and complete a student reaction statement.
ChemMatters is a general interest magazine from the American Chemical Society, published four times a year. Twenty five years of back issues can be purchased on a CD and with a site license, added to a school web page. This assignment will contribute significantly to the county reading requirement During each reading period, students will be given a year from which they can pick any of the four issues. They will access the account through the class bulletin board page, complete the reaction statement guidelines, and then submit their summary to the drop box. At certain times of the year, the classes will be instructed to read certain articles and participate in on-line discussion at the class nicenet.org site.
Status of project. CD and site license obtained. CD will be uploaded to bulletin board when it is open for teacher access in mid August. Drop box established at nicenet.org. Some articles for discussion selected and topic questions prepared.
2. Chemistry podcasts -- Students will have the option of looking at chemistry podcasts to help with understanding of material.
I purchased a site license for the Bergmann and Sams (Peak Educational Consulting) pod/video casts for introductory chemistry. The value for me is that a prepared presentation is much less time consuming than making my own or doing voice over powerpoints. These will posted on the school bulletin board. Students will be encouraged to look at some of the topics before discussion of new material in class. At some point, I might try running a class discussion about the material using the nicenet.org connecticon about a podcast without doing any in class discussion. For other topics, students can use the podcast material for any available topic for which they have difficulty.
The second part of will involve recording one teacher’s presentation of material for the organic/biochemistry class and making it available to students in my class as a podcast.
Status of project. Everything is in place for the first podcast and will be ready to go when I can get access to the bulletin board again. The second project needs some trial work when classes start.
3. WISE programs -- use the online WISE learning programs on Recycling Tires and Will Fuel Cells replace Gasoline Engines?
These on-line simulations reinforce important chemistry ideas and show how the principles of chemistry have important applications outside of the classroom. My plan is to use the recycling tires during the section on materials science and the fuel cell part with the organic chemistry study of hydrocarbon fuels.
Status of project. I have worked through the units on my own. I have looked at the teacher material and suggestions for using it. I need to try accessing the programs through student access at my school to see if can be run on the machines in the computer labs.
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Tom,
ReplyDeleteThanks to your posting I finally got into WISE. I am intrigued by your chemistry choices..are you teaching ChemCom as your choices reflect what I am familiar with there. When you worked through the WISE units how long did they take? How much time are you allocating for student completion? I used an early Bergamn podcast from itunes with my APChem class --they liked his humor. Your projects all add alot of student support and value to letting them be responsible for reading and synthesizing the information. I will be interested in updatses as to how they all work. I have hard copies of ChemMatters, and I admit I don't use them to their full potential.
Thanks for posting and doing projects that I may borrow from in the future!
Hi, ChemCom would be my preferred entrance to chemistry at just about any level. I think chemistry needs to have a connection to important stuff, rather than being chemistry as it always has been. As I look at it, most of my students, including my honors students, will not go on to be chemists or even science majors, but all of them will crew members, (okay too many of them are passengers only) on Spaceship Earth. If I had my way, chemistry would be entirely based upon environmental and biochemical understanding. If I make a contribution to my colleagues biochemistry class, it will be in the area of the science of cooking. These projects give me another way to try to make the connection. (When's the last time you needed to calculate the number of moles of baking soda needed to add to a cake, as an example?)
ReplyDeleteToday's question that I would rather be working on than my VoiceThread is the biochemistry behind why some foods change color when heated. My motivation comes from the Dragon Tongue and Royal Burgandy bush beans that I grow that both lose their purple colors to become yellow and green respectively when cooked.
The ChemMatters idea came up because we used to photocopy old issues. I never liked the loss of color and overall quality with the copy, and then I learned this summer that ACS copyright doesn't allow photocopying the issue. With the way I have it set up, I see it as an automatic assignment. Every couple weeks, students need to find something to read. I only upload it once, probably only doing a few years at a time to save space on the server, students submit their assignments, and I never have to hand out or touch a piece of paper. My students have always loved the issues, especially when given some choice over what they could read.
As I looked at WISE, I thought their time estimates were too high. I think students should be able to do them in much shorter amounts of time; however, I still after 20 plus years underestimate how long it can take some students to complete work. I may assign most of them as homework so I am not giving up 5 class periods to computer seat work.
Tom,
ReplyDeleteYou have some good ideas. I don't teach chemistry, but I'm very interested in the chemistry pod/video casts. I definitely see the value in having the students preview the material, and then being able to go back and review as needed. I'd like to do something similar with my earth science classes. I originally planned on doing the podcasts myself, but as you stated, that could become very time consuming. Good luck with your project!
Excellent project for reading. Our school is stressing reading and summarizing and I do see these as a weakness for students. Allowing them to access it all through the computer and write and deposit online is great. Some of my PLN thinks we need to move toward a paperless class. Love the podcast idea. It is very time consumeing for teachers to prepare an purchasing them sounds ideal.
ReplyDeleteTom,
ReplyDeleteI really like your Chemmatters assignment idea. I think I am totally going to do the same thing (for second semester, at least). We do get Chemmatters at my school, although I'll have to check to see if it's a site license or not. Out of curiosity, are you going to be grading your students' work? If you are, are you grading it on correction or upon completion, and do you have a scoring rubric in mind? Anyway, great application of technology and thanks much for sharing!