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Tag Archives: science
If At First You Don’t Succeed…
There’s a Murphy’s Law-style saying that goes, “There’s never time to do it right, but there’s always time to do it over.” When it comes to teaching a high school lab science course, I would say that the opposite is … Continue reading
Teaching Graphing
Some day, one of my students will write a book entitled, Everything I Ever Needed to Know about Math I learned in Chemistry Class. Somehow, in The Emperor’s New Frameworks the post MCAS world, being able to read a graph … Continue reading
Clinging to What We Think We Understand
Einstein once said Whether you can observe a thing or not depends on the theory which you use. It is the theory which decides what can be observed. +20
Frustrations With Teaching Science in the Current Educational Climate
This is a message I sent to my department head that outlines some of my frustrations with teaching science in the current educational climate. For my out-of-state readers, MCAS is the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System–a set of high-stakes tests that … Continue reading
News Flash: Chemistry Works in Beakers Just Like it Does on Paper
My first-year college prep (middle of the bell curve) chem students have been studying different types of chemical reactions. I taught them to use the activity series to predict whether or not a single replacement reaction occurs. They can do … Continue reading
Baking Cookies as a Way of Teaching Lab Procedures
This year, the introductory lab assignment I gave my chemistry students was to bake a batch of cookies without using a recipe. I’m pleased with how the assignment worked out, so I thought I’d post about it here. +3-1
Stoichiometry Test Redux
Yesterday in one of my classes, I spent a few minutes talking about the results of the test I described in this post. The two kids who stayed after school for three hours both scored in the 90s on the … Continue reading
A Modicum of Effort
The topic I just finished teaching (moles & stoichiometry) has given me a little more insight into the minds of high school sophomores. +4-4
Science Fairs
From 2004-06 I taught at Peabody Veterans Memorial High School in Peabody, MA, a school that participates in the annual Massachusetts State Science Fair. I was the coordinator for the school’s fair in March 2006. I also participated as a … Continue reading
Teaching Experimental Design
Anyone who has listened to me rant about teaching for any amount of time at all has probably heard my rant about the way lab experiments are done in high schools. +3-1