Myidea: Out Of The Box And Into The Classroom: A Teaching Experience

FUTURE PROGRAM Out of the Box and into the Classroom: A Teaching Experience

myIDEA

Evelyn Covés-Datson, [email protected], French and Microbiology dual major, 2012 Angelical Martin, [email protected], Biochemistry major and Spanish minor, 2011

OVERVIEW

PROJECT SNAPSHOT

WHAT I LEARNED

Conducted two experiments over the course of four weeks. The first, a murder mystery lab, was recommended by the teacher we worked with and the second, a hydrates lab, was a topic of our choosing that we felt would be of great interest to the kids.

We conducted a Murder Mystery Lab in which the students were responsible for finding who killed the victim by figuring out the murder solution, by use of Double Displacement Reactions, and associating a molarity of the solution to the killer, using Molarity concepts. The primary goal was to provide a real-life application of familiar chemistry concepts.

We have learned many lessons through FUTURE, but one of most importance is the lesson of responsibility and influence.

We worked with Dr. Cynthia Salhi’s three General Chemistry classes of roughly thirty students per classes. Our overall goal with both labs was to build an interest in chemistry by connecting chemistry to live sof students. We are sure that we have been successful in our endeavor as many of the students have asked us to return as well as decided to explore more chemistry courses in their school and when they go to college.

TIMELINE The labs spanned over four weeks, once a week on Thursdays, three of which we attended. The Murder Mystery Lab took three days to complete and the Hydrates Lab took one day of lab to complete.

The last lab we designed and implemented and was about hydrates. Our goal was to create a fun lab that demonstrated the uses of chemistry, concepts of molarity in particular, and to associate their everyday lives with these concepts that they learn in class.

Once we truly connected with our students, their transformation into attentive, open, and therefore vulnerable, people was startling. We recognized immediately the daunting realization that we were a strong influence on these kids, stronger than we would have imagined or anticipated. So strong, in fact, that their productivity depended on our enthusiasm for the lesson, our approach to teaching and willingness to educate. This power to influence change and spark interest became a responsibility we placed on ourselves. To have this impact is no light matter and our ability to affect change and see its outcome is something that we will cherish. The communication skills and lesson of patience is also something that we will use in all of our future ventures.

Partner Information: Angelical Martin and Evelyn Covés-Datson School Information: Cass Technical High School, Detroit, MI Teacher Information: Dr. Cynthia Salhi Project Coordinator: Mary Starr ProjectSupport Staff: Cesar Delgado, Morten Lundsgaard, Justin Lomont, Tracy Lent