Long time...

WOW...it's been forever since I've been on here. In New York now at Teachers College. It seems my files have been deleted, so I can no longer access my page that I made, unless the URL is bad. I'm happy to be here, but there are aspects of Rutgers that I miss. Some of the courses here are not up to the calibur I expected and hoped, but otherwise, it's great living in the city. I have been able to observe some nice schools and ones with great technology too, i.e., smartboard technology. Next semester I do my student teaching, so if anyone has some good chemistry stuff for me, let me know!

Dive In

Hey guys, I know the class is over and people probably wont' be checking blogs or other people's blogs as much, but Joe helped me A LOT the other day to put together a lesson on Dalton's Law of Partial Pressures that my observation teacher let me teach this morning. I modeled it after Eugenia's ISLE cycle and I thought it went well for the most part even though it was Friday. It's a total of 12 slides and I was able to go through all of them within the 43 minute period. I've also attached a worksheet for the kids to do for homework to follow up on what they learned in class. Students struggled a little bit just cause it was a different learning environment for them and this was my first time doing it, but overall I think it went well and so did my observing teacher. Hope it helps for anyone who has to teach Dalton's Law. You will find that this has applications in scuba diving among other area, and a topic scuba divers should be familiar with...so don't be afraid to get your feet wet with your students and DIVE IN!

Dalton's Law of Partial Pressures.
Partial Pressure Ditto.

Technology Application 2: A Lemon Battery

In this activity, students perform an application experiment using food! Ever hear the old saying, "When life hands you a lemon, make lemonade!" Well today, when you hand the students a lemon, they are going to make a battery. Students will design a battery with a lemon to try and light a bulb. They will be able to use Vernier to measure the voltage. This is a fun activity after going through electrochemistry and how a battery works.

Materials for the lab:
Lemon Battery Lab.
Vernier voltage probe Configuration file.

Journal 14

Today in my observation, my teacher took her students to the computer lab to do use a computer animation to study gases. The students had to build the apparatus themselves and then determine the pressure at a fixed volume when different masses were put on top of a piston in a closed container. The students seemed to like it and it gave them a chance to experiment with different gases. Friday will be my last day there and my teacher is letting me teach. I will be covering Daltoon's Law of Partial Pressures, so if anyone has any suggestions, I am all ears!

Reflection 14

Today, we each discussed our lesson plans that we developed and learned how to make a free web page/e-mail address that's valid and not at an AOl address. Some people had some great ideas for observational experiments and other lab activities that utilized technology, e.g. Vernier. I think for my next activity, I can use an application experiment using a lemon battery with Vernier and also a website that shows simulations of chemical reactiosn on the macroscopic and microscopic level.

Journal 13

I made my PowerPoint presentation for my seminar class and it came out well this week. In my observation today, my teacher held true to the ISLE cycle by showing observational experiments with gases and used technology to show a real life application of a situation when steam was let out of a train and crushed it due to atmospheric pressure. Found a good lab to do with vernier that I posted and I will be in a poster contest on Friday displaying my lesson plan using the ISLE cycle in the new biology building on Busch Campus for undergraduate chemistry students who have done research or other academic achievements!

Technology Application 1: An Oxidation-Reduction Titration: The Reactin of Fe2+ and Ce4+

A titration, as you may recall, allows students to learn more about an unknown solution by reacting it with a second solution of known molar concentration. There are a number of ways to measure the progress of a reaction. In this experiment, students will investigate a potentiometric titration in which the electric potential of a reaction is monitored. Through a redox reaction, students will be able to determine the amount of Iron (II) ions in a solid sample of ferrous ammonium sulfate hexahydrate. This lab would be most appropriate for an AP class or Honors.

Materials for the lab:
Redox Titration Lab.
Vernier ORP Sensor Configuration file.