This lesson could fit whilst teaching equilibrium, redox, chemical/physical reactions or just learning about the scientific process. I try to blend scientific thinking in wherever possible, and this is a great one with minimal focus on the "right answer" but instead focusing on thinking like a scientist. HOW TO SET IT UP I use the … Continue reading Thought Experiment: Creating and Testing Hypotheses
My favourite types of activities are those that can turn the "hmmm" into an "ah ha!" without too much involvement from me. This type of activity really encourages mild confusion (The Gift of Mild Confusion) and was really rewarding for my students when they eventually worked it out! How to set it up 2 separating … Continue reading Thought-Experiment: Intermolecular Forces
I've always dreamed of being able to create my own Chemistry curriculum, not bound my specifications or national standards. And next year my dream is coming true for the first time in my eight years of teaching - WOOP! Some bonuses that I am genuinely super excited about... a) getting kids to understand concepts rather … Continue reading Creating a concept based curriculum
This week is a celebratory blog post as this week is the 2 year anniversary of my first ever ChemJungle video! 73 videos, 60,000 views and 700 subscribers so far (300 to go until I can celebrate true YouTube stardom according to my G12s!) The channel was born from frustration (as so many creative endeavours … Continue reading Why I make YouTube videos
My wonderful G12 students leave this week and I've spent a lot of time thinking about this massive transition and what we can do to really make those last few days super memorable and enjoyable for them. I always felt like I was one of those people who "embraced change" - after all I've changed … Continue reading How can we make the last days of school memorable?
BLOG CHALLENGE - Week one "In the future, students will need to be nimble. They will need to know how to experiment, iterate, and pivot. " (Spencer) @FriedEnglish shared "7 ways to inspire divergent thinking" with me last week and the article resonated with me immensely. After all, as a scientist this is our bread … Continue reading Divergent thinking – It’s all about classroom culture
About 6 months ago I decided that I was going to write a teaching blog. I read many articles about the benefits of blogging just like this "Why every teacher should blog" and the idea sounded awesome. I like to write, I like to think about my teaching principles and I like to read about … Continue reading Why did no one tell me blogging was hard?
I've chatted a lot about the challenges with reflections but nobody likes those people who just point out problems without offering any solutions. So in the festive spirit of giving, these are my top 10 ways for getting students engaged in reflection! Pick one, try it and let me know how it goes.... either comment … Continue reading Top 10 creative reflection activities
Imagine arriving at a train station in a completely new city and navigating your way to your hotel. If it's a short distance most of us would just use google maps to navigate the journey and walk the quickest route. If the following day you lost your phone, there would almost certainly be some panic … Continue reading The gift of mild confusion
