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Bethany Sliver
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Teaching has ultimately been
my calling all these years and I have finally stopped to listen. I have
always enjoyed various aspects of teaching throughout my life (from giving
free piano lessons to tutoring students in science). While doing genetic
research, my favorite part of my job was teaching new people in the lab. Over time I grew extremely tired and bored
with the lack of gratification in observing immediate accomplishments from
all of my hard work and from the lack of social interaction in the cold and
sterile laboratory environment. With a
career change as a chemistry teacher these past four years, I can no longer
say that I am bored but am wholly refreshed and motivated with an educator’s
desire in helping others. “Seeing the light come on” in my students’ minds is
an immediate and personally rewarding accomplishment that I can now
experience each and every day. I
thoroughly enjoy helping my students and am deeply touched when they write to
thank me that all of my hard work has not been in vain, but has been a
positive contribution to their present and future education and ultimately
their life. RESEARCH ELEMENT # 1 “MOLE DAY” Rubric Score: 45/50 Standards incorporated: 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5-1.9, 1.13, 6.2, 6.3, 2.3, 2.4,
2.10, 2.22
This rubric score was not 50/50 because some modifications
may be required to incorporate all of these activities into the classroom. Power Point Presentation for “Who want to
be Moleionaire?”
Outstanding website!
http://www.thecatalyst.org/forum/moleionaire/moleionaire.html
Other Mole Day Websites: http://www.barstow.k12.ca.us/bhs/science/chemistry/notes.html http://www.moleday.org/htdocs/shirts_info.html http://www.huron-city.k12.oh.us/moleday.htm http://www.snn-rdr.ca/snn/old/nov99/nov99/moleday.html http://www.moleday.org/htdocs/projects.html http://www.moleday.org/htdocs/history.html http://www.moleday.org/htdocs/avogadro.html http://www.moleday.org/htdocs/mole_jokes.html This Power Point presentation that you can download for free is absolutely fabulous with graphics that are extremely realistic to the television version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” Sarah Helsinger has put an enormous amount of time in preparing this Power Point presentation for her students and has made it available to anyone who simply clicks on this web address. The rest of the websites contain a plethora of activities that can also be used for Mole Day celebration with your class. Some of these activities include: students writing mole day songs, students making mole day flags to fly on the school’s flag pole, students making “Mole-biles” to hang from the ceiling, students making a mole pinata or a stuffed mole, students making mole day campaign signs, students making a Moletin Board, students creating their own game board of Mole-opoly, students creating artwork for display on Mole Day, students participating in the Moleympics (such events as the “Pin the nose on the mole, javelin throw, and the 6.02 relay), students participating in a Mole Day scavenger hunt, students dressing up in costumes and role playing, students exchanging Mole Day greeting cards, students competing in a “Mole Pun Contest,” students writing mole day poems, stories or cartoons to be published in the school newspaper, students doing mini-labs on moles, students making Mole Day treats to share with the class (Moleasses cookies, Avogadro Dip, or Taco-mole sauce), students solving mole problems such as “How Big Is a Mole?” and students solving several mole conversion calculations. RESEARCH ELEMENT # 2 “FIREWORK
CHEMISTRY” Rubric Score: 25/30 Standards
incorporated: 1.1, 1.3, 1.5-1.9, 1.10, 1.13, 1.16, 5.1, 5.2, 6.2, 2.1, 2.4 Lesson Plan for Firework Chemistry
http://www.idahoptv.org/ntti/nttilessons/lessons2002/reid.html Interactive
Firework Chemistry Websites http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/kaboom/anatomy.html http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/kaboom/elemental/ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/fireworks/fire_flash.html http://chemistry.about.com/library.weekly/blfireworks.htm Video Clips on Firework Chemistry http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/fireworks/ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/fireworks/fire.html Firework Chemistry tutorials http://chemistry.about.com/library.weekly/aa062701a.htm http://chemistry.about.com/library.weekly/aa061602a.htm Students love to watch
fireworks. It is an American past time
for various holiday celebrations to “kick back” and enjoy the fireworks. Here in RESEARCH ELEMENT # 3 “CHEMISTRY OF COLOR” Rubric Score: 25/30 Standards incorporated: 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 2.1, 2.3, 2.4 Chemistry of Color
Lesson Plans on the Internet: http://www.iit.edu/~smile/ch96m4.html http://www.artic.edu/aic/students/sciarttech/global_pages/g1.2.html http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/ntti/resources/lessons/seespot/b.html http://www.iit.edu/~smile/ch9602/html http://www.iit.edu/~smile/ch9005.html Related
websites on the Chemistry of Color http://mc2.cchem.berkeley.edu/Java/RGB/example1.html http://science.csustan.edu/tutorial/color/ http://scifun.chem.wisc.edu/chemweek/fallcolr/fallcolr.html http://www.tsbkm.com/prod_detail/36 http://pubs.acs.org/cen/whatstuff/stuff/7811scit4.html Teaching the
background of how electrons configure and jump levels within the atom is one
of the most important concepts covered during the school year that most of
the future chemistry content revolves around. It is also one of the most fun
parts of the class to instruct. The
chemistry of color can be used not only for simple flame tests demonstrations
and wave demonstrations, but can be applied to many extensions of color
chemistry. I have extended color
chemistry to encompass such areas as: 1.
How dyes work (Chemistry of
Vat Dyes; Includes Tie-Dye workshop activity) 2.
Chemistry of chromatography
(interactive websites included) 3.
Chemistry of autumn colors 4.
How to make invisible ink
(which kids of any age would love) 5.
Chemistry of bleach on color 6.
The chemistry of natural dyes 7.
The chemistry of food dyes 8.
How hair coloring works 9.
Personal Reflections of a Dye Chemist RESEARCH ELEMENT # 4 “CHEMISTRY
MAGIC TRICKS” Rubric Score: 24/30 Standards
incorporated: 1.3, 5.2, 5.5, 1.13, 2.3 Chemical Demonstrations and Problem Solving Tricks to buy on the internet: http://www.fireworksnews.com/chemmagic.htm http://www.sattricks.com/cgi-bin/SoftCart.100.exe/scstore/c- CHEMISTRY_TRICKS_Packets.html?L+scstore+mgtv6138+1070523495 Chemical Demonstrations available: http://chem.lapeer.org/Chem1Docs/Index.html http://chem.lapeer.org/Chem2Docs/Index.html Chemical Demonstrations with lesson plans available: http://yn.la.ca.us/cec/cecsci/sci-high.html Students can witness actual chemical reactions
occurring that they would normally only see as chemical equations on
paper. Chemical demonstrations give
students a visual understanding of the reaction that otherwise might not be
understood on paper. This is evidenced
in Dr. John Fortman’s use of chemistry magic to
teach his students at RESEARCH ELEMENT #5 “ONLINE SCIENCE
SCAVENGER HUNTS” Rubric Score: 25/30 Standards
incorporated: 1.1, 1.16 http://k6educators.about.com/library/howto/htscav.htm http://webtech.kennesaw.edu/highschool/scavhunts.htm http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/TM/WS_invent_hunt2.shtml http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr113.shtml http://www.davispartners.com/nhs/scavengerhunts/cy/testform.html http://www.davispartners.com/nhs/scavengerhunts/tehmi/testform.html http://www.davispartners.com/nhs/scavengerhunts/jennifer/testform.html http://www.davispartners.com/nhs/scavengerhunts/katie/testform.html Scavenger hunts are a very popular tool used by thousands of educators in our country. I have spoken to several veteran teachers who have religiously used scavenger hunts with their classes and have adamantly praised their value during instruction. Students enjoy searching on the internet and are given the opportunity to compete for answers. Students who tend to be more of a “visual learner” will also greatly benefit from this activity. In the future, I will make a point to reserve computer rooms for my students and allow them to benefit from doing computer chemistry research. This type of instruction will not only be fun for my students, but will be equally educational and challenging for them. RESEARCH ELEMENT #6 “WEIRD SCIENCE” Rubric Score: 25/30 Standards
incorporated: 1.2, 1.3, 1.5,
2.1, 2.3 http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/6603/glowing.html http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/6603/instructions.html http://www.discoverchemistry.com/dcv2-docroot/student/fun_stuff/electric_pickle/ http://www.grossology.org/yuck.shtml http://chemistry.about.com/library/weekly/aa060601a.htm http://chemistry.about.com/cs/biochemistry/a/aa061903a.htm http://chemistry.about.com/library/weekly/b1090703a.htm http://www.spartechsoftware.com/reeko/ http://amasci.com/weird/wclose.html http://amasci.com/freenrg/magh2o.html http://www.eskimo.com/~billb/weird.html Students love classes that get their attention. I hope that weird and crazy experiments and topics will help me to keep my students’ interest. Unusual topics and demonstrations such as glowing pickles and glow-in-the-dark candy will definitely keep my students interested in class and in related instruction. The weird topics of this section include: 1. Glowing pickle 2. What causes wint-o-green lifesavers to glow in the dark? Candy triboluminescence 3. Bathroom chemistry: “Do you know what’s in your toilet?” 4. Website for the “Mad Scientist” 5. Closeminded Science (you never know what topics you might find here, BEWARE). 6. Chemistry, Magnets, and Skepticism 7. Weird Research (Also BEWARE of this page, some scientific research is just TOO WEIRD) 8. Grossology and Science (This one may be too gross for some people) RESEARCH ELEMENT #7 “EVERYDAY
CHEMISTRY AROUND YOU" Rubric Score: 30/30 Standards incorporated: 2.1,
2.2, 2.3 http://chemistry.about.com/library.weekly/blcommon.htm http://chemistry.about.com/library/weekly/aa070401a.htm http://chemistry.about.com/library/weekly/aa071401a.htm http://chemistry.about.com/library/weekly/aa081301a.htm http://chemistry.about.com/library/weekly/aa050401a.htm I have desperately tried to include more “everyday chemistry” topics with my students. I have spent many hours researching topics that I can include in my classes in which students can relate. From the research that I have done in the past, I have seen a huge impact on gaining their interest with the class. I hope to continue this type of research for years to come. 1. Chemical Names of Common Substances 2. Gasoline and Octane Ratings 3. How do Smoke Detectors Work? 4. How does Soap Clean? 5. Biochemistry of Lycopene/ How does it protect against cancer? RESEARCH ELEMENT #8 “CHEMBALANCER” Rubric Score: 22/30
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