Dr. Derek Davenport, Professor Emeritus, Purdue University
As we all know variety is the spice of life…. and any type of variation in your class sessions can keep students engaged, spark an interest in those drifting off, or just provide some fun.
Here are some themes I enjoy. Others just seem to pop up with my mood of the day!
a) Title the session: take a key word for the day and relate it to another field. In chemistry, here are a couple: “The Halogens: A Family like No Other” Images of families of animals, historic people etc abound and are very useful in this theme. “Empirical and Molecular Formulas, the Metric System, and Chocolate”
b) Intertwine catchy phrases or quotations:
“Lions, and Tigers and Bears, oh my!” or “Acids and Bases and Salts, oh, my!”
“Helium: Son of the Sun and Daughter of the Earth” from Derick Davenport
“Chance Favors the Prepared Mind” Louis Pasteur
It isn’t hard to do, but takes a little reflection. The interesting thing is that if you use a phrase several times during a class, students remember more.
c) Include edibles in examples: always a winner. M&M candies for statistical analysis of isotopes or a number of interesting things. A few years ago, there were books written about M&Ms in education. Eggs are terrific for chemistry, the shell, the white, the yolk.
Classic TV commercials are an interesting resource available on-line.
Try it, you’ll like it! (Mikey, old TV commercial for Life cereal)
No comments:
Post a Comment