I have been working on involving more open ended questioning in my classes – how can I better incorportate the ideas of inquiry and sustained inquiry in my teaching? The following is the re-working of a lab on the isomers of Butanol. By making this lab into more of a thought experiement students are more engaged in communicating their ideas and predictions – and we have less chemical waste too. I am playing with the ideas of argumentation and exploration. I use whiteboarding quite a bit for this process as students seems much more willing to write something down if they feel they can easily change it or erase it.
Related Resources:
Curriculum Idea: Learning about the Digestive System through Hands-on Learning
Categories: Lab/Student Activity
Author: Christina De Silva, Don Galbraith Award winner, Brock University A great way for students to become engaged and learn about critical scientific concepts is through hands-on activities.... read more
Student Activity: Modelling the Phases of the Moon
Categories: Lab/Student Activity
The Moon is visible at some point during most nights. If you observed the Moon from one night to the next you would notice that the Moon rises 50 min later each night. With close observation you... read more
Teacher Demo/Student Activity: Gas tests
Categories: Lab/Student Activity, Teacher Demonstration
This demonstration/activity involves the safe production of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide gases, as well as the appropriate results for tests used to identify these gases. read more