1 post from November 2008

     One of the essential learning objectives for Biology II is to explain the chemical basis for life. I was struggling to find a unit that would be meaningful in this field and comprehensible by my students as their background in chemistry is limited. I was looking through my A.P. Biology notebook from high school and saw a great introductory activity to the 6 properties of water which are important to life. They are, of course, adhesion, cohesion, high heat of vaporization, high specific heat, polarity, and the ability for ice to float on water. I was wondering how to adapt some of these concepts to my classroom as sets to peak interest in this topic which could be bland. So for each property I devised an appropriate demonstration and biologically relevant example to hopefully burn the 6 properties into my students synapses for all of eternity.
     The demonstrations I devised for each are as follows and remembered by my students as the celery experiment for adhesion, pepper floating on water for cohesion, alcohol vs. water in cooling down your hand for high heat of vaporization, a quarter vs. a pen cap heating up rates for high specific heat, oil floating on water for polarity, and ice floating on water, for ice floating on water. I paired each of these with a biological example, and it is the only lesson of the year which I'm sure the kids have understood and might still remember to this very day. I still ask what these properties are at random times throughout the year and the kids are unafraid to answer these questions, as they appear to be with others, because at least they remember the demonstrations. They can normally work out the properties significance when thinking about the demonstration. It proves to me that when I feel like I have the motivation, resources and mental well-being, I can be an effective teacher in some regards. This small glimmer of hope makes me feel like Brady Quinn in his debut season, although I may have started with a good game when well prepared and fresh off the bench, the depth and ferocity of my opposition will surely, and in my case has, left me somewhat shell-shocked and relying on my running game as opposed to razzle-dazzle. Also a success, I believe now I have made a football analogy in 4 straight blog. Also, I realize I might have begun to take on a hatred of the NFC north, a consequence of living with Alex Funt. Is this a success, I know not, but I don't believe its a failure, so I'll take what I can get at this point.