Students' Reflection: Materials Research Project for HS PS 2-6

After last week's post, I realized that this project is something that several of my readers really enjoyed seeing. I thought I would offer my students an opportunity to share their thoughts on the project to give you some insight on their perspective. I actually had a ton of kids interested in writing, but it is a crazy time of year for us. I am at an international school in Dubai and our kids travel all over the region to compete in various sports and academic events each season. These trips happen next week so a lot of my kids are focused on preparing for that academically. I did have a few students who were able to write a little reflection piece for this week's post. I hope to incorporate my students more often in my blog if time allows them to do this. I love that my kids are so interested in doing these kinds of things even when a grade isn't attached. It really shows their love for learning and not being products of a system of compliance. Enjoy!

Student 1: Fatima

Hello!

I hope that you are all having a good day so far. Today, I’m going to be talking about my previous chemistry project and the way in which my class and the rest of the chemistry classes presented our findings. So, our chemistry project was to choose a topic, create a research question surrounding that topic, and then answer the question through research, models, and CERs. I decided that I wanted my topic to be candles and the research question that I associated with candles was: “How does the molecular structure of paraffin wax allow it to act as a fuel for the candle?”. Over the course of the next few days, I did just as I said; I gathered research by looking at credible sources, drew models, and wrote CERs. Then came the time to present!

The day of the presentations, I came into class and right away, my classmates and I were put into groups of 3 (it was supposed to be groups of 4 but it worked better with 3). Along with the instructions, we were given a doc which consisted of everyone’s name (since everyone was presenting), a column to the left of all the roles, and then a big space to the right. The different roles were: presenter (the person who was presenting), discusser (the person who asked the questions at the end), celebrator (the person who told the presenter everything that they did well in their presentation), and the scribe (the person who was taking notes about the key things that the presenter said in the big space to the right). Personally, I think that this process went very well. Instead of choosing the role that you liked the most or was the most easiest, you got a chance to experience all 4 roles. I think that this process helped me and everyone else communicate and engage better because first of all, you actually had to pay attention, whether you liked it or not. Second of all, because you were actually paying attention during the other person’s presentation, you got a chance to ask questions that lead you and your group to greater discussions surrounding the topic. This protocol for presenting was definitely harder than presenting protocols that I’ve had in the past because you really need to be able to take the information that’s being given to you, process it, and then build off of that. However, since we were in small groups and there were multiple groups, the teacher wasn’t able to focus all of her attention on you the whole class and so, people often tended to get distracted.

All in all, I think that this protocol for presenting was very helpful towards my learning. I really hope that if you have a chance, you try it. Thank you for reading!

Note: Fatima's candle screencast is posted on my previous blog.




Student 2: Aleena

When we were first assigned this project, I was a little uneasy as I am not used to being able to choose whatever topic I want. I could've done this project on anything! I began researching different topics and I still couldn't decide. Eventually, I decided to do my project on titanium alloys as it has many common uses. After having my material in mind, that's when the genuine research began. Now, I had to figure out what specific use of titanium I would look at. I pondered this question for quite a while before Ms. Bowers mentioned that she had golf clubs made of titanium. I immediately took to this idea as I had found many mentions of titanium alloys being used in golf clubs, but I had never thought of using that for my project. This is when the most fun part began. I could relax as I finally had a topic, but I had to be able to show my final project in a creative an interesting way. I found so many interesting things about titanium in my research and was actually able to understand what specific properties of titanium allowed it to be light while staying strong. I constructed a bulk scale model with my understanding about this topic and I found it very interesting to learn about the actual chemistry that allows for these specific properties to exist in titanium. Overall, I really thought that this was a beneficial and successful project as I learned a lot because of the creative input we had in choosing our own topics that we were actually passionate about. It really tied together our whole understanding of coulombic attraction and intermolecular forces.

Here is my final project on titanium's use in golf clubs if you would like to take a look. Thank you for reading!




Student 3: Emily

Overall, I really enjoyed the formatting of this project and the freedoms that it gave us. 

I enjoyed that we got to choose our own topic, allowing for a feeling of liberty- a feeling not often associated with science classes. This ensured that everyone in the class remained engaged in their topic and in the presentations, not hearing any redundant information. For example, I chose wool, not knowing anything about it going into the project except for the fact that it comes from sheep. Now, I can tell you all about why the structure of the wool molecule relates to its function and what Intermolecular Forces take place as wool absorbs water. I learned this on my own throughout the project, which allowed for me to understand our unit (Intermolecular Forces) in a specific context that makes sense to me. 

However, I am someone who thrives off of structure and routine, so the explicit rubric and unit of study guiding us were very appreciated. Although we each had our own materials, all of our presentations revolved around the same topics of Intermolecular Forces and how Function relates to Structure, allowing for everyone to also understand their peer's presentations and research. 

Watching the presentations allowed for us to put our newly acquired information into context not only with the molecule that we picked but various molecules that our classmates picked. We were able to see the same concepts working in many different places and see how our topics of study are very applicable to interactions in our daily lives. For example, in my presentations group alone I learned about how Intermolecular Forces allow for us to have pen ink, speakers, and silk.

I would love to do a project with a similar format in the future, and found it a great way to learn about Intermolecular Forces!  


_______________________________

We are trying now in the process of trying to figure out what kind of end of unit project we can do for HS PS 1-1 & 1-2. 

HS PS 1-1: Use the periodic table as a model to predict the relative properties of elements based on the patters of electrons in the outermost energy level of atoms.

HS PS 1-2 Construct and revise an explanation for the outcome of a simple chemical reaction based on the outermost electron states of atoms, trends on the periodic table, and knowledge of the patterns of chemical properties.


Any suggestions?? 

Comments

  1. Hi Lauren, I'd love to get in touch with you about what you're doing in your chemistry classroom. If you'd be willing to share some more resources, I'd love to collaborate. If you're interested, please email me at lfagan@ncpachina.org. Thanks!

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