Reflections on Lesson Plan

I created this week's assignment because I had planned to study diffusion this week. What I did was do three mini-lab demonstrations before I even went over the concept of diffusion. The first was a balloon with almond extract hidden in a shoebox with a hole in the lid which they passed around.They loved smelling the box- they thought it was cherry scent. The second demonstration was timing how fast perfume permeates the air across the room. I had one or two students stationed at every meter and they raised their hand when they first smelled the perfume. Another student timed the experiment. They loved getting up and participating in the lab. The third was a beaker filled with water with blue dye squirted in it. I then showed a PowerPoint that was infused with several movie clips and we chatted even more about the mini-lab demonstrations and how they related to the definitions. The following day we did a lab with corn starch and iodine with ziploc bags to help get the concept of diffusion of substance across a semi-permeable membrane. I did a few things wrong but overall I think that creating a lesson that is multi-faceted really helps to get the concept across for all types of students. What I really learned is that it makes the lesson fun for me. And if I'm happy, they're happy!