Part 1: Course Description & Syllabus

My target audience for this course is a Grade 7 blended classroom of twenty-eight 12 to 13 year olds who has access to technology at school and at home. This unit will not be entirely online as I feel that hands-on learning in Chemistry is very important. Not only does it allow them to see, first hand, what the science is trying to teach them, but it also provides a memorable teaching moment that they will think about years in the future. Some of the most enjoyable memories I have from school have happened during a science experiment. Usually due to some sort of explosion, but I digress.

I find it’s important to see where your students are coming from when you start a subject – gauge their prior knowledge. Know/Wonder/Learn (K/W/L) activities are a great way for a teacher to see who has the fundamental knowledge on the subject, and who are coming in as complete novices. It also helps to see what students are curious about on a specific subject. Sometimes, it can help shape future lessons or discussions. Often, it reaffirms that the lessons already set out are going to be able to engage most of the students because it addresses what they want to know more about. I’ve also found that it helps to jog the memory of other students who may have had similar experiences, or gives them that “aha” moment to find out that something they’ve experienced falls under the category of the subject.

For the assessment, there is nothing more heartwarming than to see the pride on a student’s face when they can show not only the teacher that they learned something really cool, but they get to show their friends and classmates as well. I usually host a science fair gallery walk where other classes can come in and enjoy the fruits of their labour, and show off their learning. While tests are another way to assess their learning, I find so many students have anxiety around tests, that they forget a lot of what they’ve learned in the moment. So much literature has been written about text anxiety, too. Allowing them to present their learning in a project, where they get an interactive audience that can ask questions and reveal even more of what they know, is a great way to see what they have absorbed on the subject.

Adding a virtual component allows for the students to share their work at home, as well. Not all parents are able to make it to a school for an event like a science fair. Creating something that the whole group can share, simultaneously, from different locations alleviates the stress on parents who want to attend, but cannot because of their schedule.

Part 2: Unit Module

This was difficult for me to complete, in all honesty. I struggle with incorporating online activities in my classroom. Mostly due to our internet being terrible but also because there are only so many devices and many of my colleagues also love to use online resources. However, I wanted to challenge myself with creating something that I will actually use in my classroom.

In the new year, our science topic is going to be on Chemistry. In Grade 7 (the group that I teach), one of the curriculum’s big ideas is Elements consist of one type of atom, and compounds consist of atoms of different elements chemically combined. I’ll be the first to admit that, as much as I love chemistry, I’m not well versed in teaching chemistry. That was challenge number one. Challenge number 2 is student engagement. Science can have the most engaging moments when you can create a massive mess all for the sake of learning. But not all parts of the lesson can be that fun and exciting. With that thought in mind, I wanted to create something that took the usually boring parts (note-taking) and make it a little more memorable.

I was inspired by Discovery Educations Science Techbook. They have a lot of interactive games and activities that encourage the students to use what they’ve learned. Their “Build an Atom” was what spurred me to focus on the fundamental information of atoms. From there, I collected resources and created not only a slideshow/website with all the pertinent information, but I made an interactive notes handout to go with it. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to a program that creates fillable PDFs, so I was forced to go the old fashioned route of a printable document. That is going to be an new challenge for myself for a later time.

I didn’t use Google Classroom in the way that I’m sure I was supposed to. I ended up using Google Sites to supplement the Classroom because I could not figure out how to make it appealing. If I were a Grade 7 student that was given the link to a Google Classroom, I would not feel inspired to complete my work. Additionally, I could never quite get a handle on how to submit links to my work and it was just a going bit of frustration on my part. Sites allowed me to make something a lot more engaging for the students and easier to share.

Overall, this assignment is something that I will be using in the future. I will continue to work on the modules in hopes of having a complete course by January. I wish myself (and all of you) good luck!