Sunday, October 17, 2010
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!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hi M.J.,
ReplyDeleteI like all of the examples of diffusion that you use. I do very similar ones when I go over diffusion. I also do osmosis at the same time and do the experiment where you remove the egg shell and soak eggs in various liquids, like syrup and distilled water. The eggs severly expanding and contracting is always a big hit.
Hi M.J.,
ReplyDeleteI would love to hear more about the lab with the cornstarch and iodine. The lab that Mark described is what I did for my lesson plan and you can see some pictures of the eggs over on my blog @ www.scieexper.blogspot.com.
Hi MJ,
ReplyDeleteI think that "doing things wrong" can actually be a very positive thing - when students see that making a mistake is acceptable and can even be part of the learning process, it can really be an eye opener.
If you are willing to share, can you tell us a little more about how your mistake influenced the lesson? From above, it sounds like everything still turned out well! Amy