ED 645 - week 4

This week my students completed another lab. This lab involved a flame test. Students were asked to burn various metal solutions and observe the colors that were produced. Students had to adhere to strict safety practices and had to use their observation skills during this lab. I like activities like this because it stretches the students thinking and gets them multitasking without them realizing it. It is important for students to develop these skills and it's more of a success when it happens without realization.

When I chose to do this lab, I was a bit apprehensive. My students often have difficulty following directions in class. Adding open flames to that equation seems like a disaster in the making. However, I am always pleasantly surprised on lab days. My students are more aware and on point, probably because there is a perceived threat to their self. What was most surprising was that the class I anticipated performing the worst, performed the best. In fact, they were the most engaged class during the class period.

After the lab was complete, the plan was to watch three videos. These videos showed reactivity trends on the periodic table and served as an attention grabber for the new topic. With this class in particular, they watched the first two videos, actively engaged, and asked/answered various questions about the video content. At the end of one of the videos, a students saw a video on the side under suggestions. Since they were so engaged thus far, I honored his request and watched that video next. It was a bit off topic with what we were learning but it allowed me to teach other important content to them. The video showed a man making a hypothesis, test it out, prove it false, and then provide proof for why he was wrong. We were able to shift into a discussion of how science really works and that often times a beginning thought is false and through experimentation the truth can be discovered. On the way out, I told them how great they did. I am attempting to make a greater effort to recognize appropriate behaviors and not just point out the wrong ones. This can encourage students to make the better choices and also reaffirms my expectations of them.