Aligning Outcomes, Assessements, and Activities
8th Grade Chemistry Unit BHAG Goal
Blended Learning Unit
Some elements of this unit will focus on building background knowledge by watching, videos, listening to podcasts, documentaries, and demonstrations that are interesting to each student because the students will be given a choice in what to watch from a varied list of acceptable options.
What is the Point?
The most important thing for students to remember from this unit a year or more after it is over is that atoms react with other atoms in order to form everything in our world and that these reactions can create or destroy many things and it is important to know how you can expect things to react (like don't mix pure bleach and metal because the reaction can be dangerous).
Foundational Knowledge
Students will need to understand that atoms make up everything around them and the reactions of those atoms causes the creation, of energy, heat, and so much more within the closed systems of the Earth and our bodies.
Students will be introduced to the law of conservation of mass.
Students will also need to know how some compounds react with other compounds based on their classification as an acid or base.
Application Goals
Students will need to think critically and creatively in this unit. Students will think critically when analyzing data in their labs on properties of water (cohesion and adhesion), Rice Crispy Mixture lab, and in their acids vs. bases labs and simulation activities.
Creative thinking will come in the form of creating a "secret recipe" of atoms to create their favorite meal or snack. Students will have to research the atoms that go into creating every common ingredient in their recipe in order to complete this process. Then they will have to work with other students to build a successful marketing campaign for their new food brand.
Integration Goals
Students should start to connect that everything they are learning in chemistry has a huge impact on their daily lives. By having students (who are at an age where they are always hungry and very passionate about their food) learn about how chemistry is used to create some of their favorite foods and then how their body then breaks the food down for chemical energy, I think students will start making very valuable connections to their daily lives. If these principals of chemistry are in their food what else is it in?
Human Dimensions
Students should learn about their collaborative skills when working in a group on a project. They should learn how to critique work respectfully, work through creative differences, learn how to respectfully disagree with someone else as well. Students will be taught some HR approved statements that can hep avoid harshly speaking to others and causing unnecessary strain between collaborators within the group.
Learning-How-to-Learn Goals
Good students in this unit will start to question their daily lives and how chemistry impacts them. They should start learning how to let a line of questioning, researching, and then reaching a conclusion just to start the process over again guide their independent learning. To become a self directed learner in this unit I think students should be prompted to pick an area on interest from a list and follow that interest through the course of learning. For example, they could choose from culinary arts, mechanics and automobile applications, etc. to build a solid working background knowledge of how chemistry principals are used in everyday life.
Caring Goals
I hope that by the end of this unit students will be able to see how their interests can be valuable in creating products and even a business and how their knowledge of their own feelings and others can help create successful marketing campaigns. I hope students learn that feelings are valuable and there is no such thing as a bad feeling as long as they are handled appropriately.
8th Grade Chemistry Unit 3-Column
Outcome, Assessment, Activities Alignment Document
Impact of the Outcome, Assessment, and Activity Alignment on my Implementation Plan
This course alignment assignment clarified the "how" of my blended learning science units. I knew that I was going to rely on digital components and resources to build strong background knowledge and "hooks" that I could build off of when teaching TEKS based content. By allowing students to choose from a variety of topics that relate to chemistry and hopefully relate some of the students' personal experience to the content I will be directly teaching in the unit, we will be able to have more thoughtful discussions and students will feel that their efforts in school will be worth it in the grand scheme of their lives. 8th graders really hate learning random things just for the sake of learning and I can't blame them at all if I'm being honest. By slowing down and carefully looking at what skills and knowledge students would need by the end of the unit I was more able to create an authentic learning project and work back from there to design a unit that will be engaging and rigorous from the very start all the way through to the end. There aren't going to be boring beginning of the unit days where I have to beg students to just get through this boring stuff with me so we can get to the fun stuff. The "fun stuff" or engaging phenomena based learning will start at the very beginning of the unit and the only direct teaching I will have to do in this unit are supportive lessons like how to count atoms, giving a clear definition for law of conservation of mass, and interpersonal skills that will be needed for the collaborative stage of their final unit projects. By taking the time to complete this 3-column chart I am able to more clearly see how their authentic learning can be incorporated with the TEKS and I will be more free to offer guidance along the way instead of being the end all be all of learning in the classroom. I am now excited to implement blended learning in my classroom because I know that all the work students will be doing is directly related to something "real" that the students can see value in working towards. Instead of random worksheets that seem disjointed, the practice worksheets and activities will be directly preparing them for the next step of learning that is needed in order to properly complete their culminating unit project of creating their own Atomic Secret Recipe. This assignment helped me clearly see how I was going to tackle such a lofty goal of transforming my classroom from teacher-centered to student-centered. This innovation plan is real to me now, not just a dream that I have little chance of accomplishing.