Confessions of a Shameless Teacher
So last year, I taught chemistry for the first semester of Integrated Science in grade 10. Big mistake. As it turned out, about 25% of the students were new to our school and did not have the benefit of the trimester of introductory chemistry in grade 9. Then you add in a good chunk of students who for whatever reason managed to avoid learning the difference between an atom and an ion in grade 9, much less how to balance an equation or predict products in a double displacement reaction. The problem was that out of the three trimesters of science, chemistry was the only one that relied heavily on prior knowledge from grade 9. Both biology and physics contained mostly stand alone topics. Needless to say, my students were all over the place. Also needless to say, we started with physics first this year :-)
Faced with only 12 weeks to get the entire class through molarity and stoichiometry, I was desperate. Then like a flash of lightning (the creative kind) it came to me. The perfect metaphor for doing molar conversions. If you are interested in how to use this strategy to solve problems involving molar conversions, check out the Mole Mountaineering lesson under Integrated Science Lessons.
Now for the shameless part. As with all great artists, creative inspiration begins with a sketch. We will call my sketch version 0.0002.
Surely you see the genius in this. Fortunately, I work at a 1:1 laptop school, and FORTUNATELY, I had a student tech assistant assigned to my class to help me with any glitches with the technology during class. We will call him Tech Assistant 2.0. What I asked him to do next might have crossed the boundaries since it wasn't exactly a tech glitch... so to speak. (Shameless)
Enter sketch version 2.0.
Apparently Tech Assistant 2.0 thought that I was taking advantage so he exacted his revenge by turning a photo of me into a green monster and permanently affixed this frightening image in the Valley of Death to warn students of the perils of crossing from mountain X to mountain Y without using the mole ratio zip line. He was fired on the spot, though today (a year and a half later), I had him messing around with my Apple TV when I couldn't get it to work. Poor kid...this makes year three with the green monster as his science teacher.
New year, new "tech assistant", new agenda. We will call this one "Tech Assistant" 3.0. We will use quotes because said student doesn't know she is my tech assistant. Shhhh...
Me: Hey ("Tech Assistant" 3.0), you are good at programming. I was wondering if it would be possible to turn this graphic into a program that would calculate values for you once you input some data. This would be handy in our upcoming unit on stoichiometry.
"TA" 3.0: Of course! It would be easy. In fact, I need a final project for my online course in programming. Would you mind if I made your life easier by designing this program for you?
Me: I guess I could let you do that. (Shameless)
Enter interactive Java program that teaches my class for me 3.0.
Note that "TA" 3.0 removed hideous monster. Oh, and now I can have students enter the balanced equation, identify their "mountains" (see lesson), and enter the given values from the problem, and they can use this program to help them visualize and set up their conversions.
Me: This is awesome! I am glad you had something meaningful to do for your project in programming.
"TA" 3.0: It was fun! BTW, do you think I could use your Mac to turn this into an app; mine is too old?
Me: (Trying to contain my excitement) Sure, anytime!
Now the proof is in the pudding, but I see an imminent upgrade to Tech Guru 4.0 in the near future if this app shows up in time for our unit this year... shameless.
In any case, the moral of this story is that our students have a wealth of talents and skills that we haven't even begun to discover. Take some time to get to know your students, and you will be surprised at the different ways that they can contribute to the learning environment of your classroom.
Stay tuned for TG 4.0's app release announcement!