Xanthippe: Oubliette I hope the conference was interesting. Enjoy your time with relatives at the end of July.
Thanks, it's been really interesting and very informative. Today was Day 5 of 10. I've got one more week to go.
We are learning some really mind-opening ways to teach the fundamental concepts of chemistry in a way that make these obscure, abstract concepts more readily accessible to high school students. This is done by conducting a well thought out, progressive series of experiments carefully designed to help the average high schooler construct in their own minds a clear, understandable model of the fundamental particles of matter which comprise all things.
In one short week we've learned how to teach students to design and conduct laboratory experiments from which they can infer the size of particle, how density is discerned and measured in the various states of matter: solid, liquid and gas. We have spent considerable time developing this model so that students will understand all of the relationships between volume, pressure, temperature and the amount of a substance in a gas. Today we concluded by measuring two different substances as they underwent changes of phase. One was water changing from solid (ice) to liquid water to gaseous water vapor. The other was lauric acid changing from a liquid to a solid. By measuring with temperatures probes and charting it over time we could infer the energy transfer involved in both temperature changes and phase changes.
The really amazing thing is that by teaching these concepts this way students understand both WHAT is happening and HOW this applies in the real world. All the formulas are merely descriptions of how reality works.
It's pretty amazing actually!
I'll keep you posted about our East Coast trip!
Oubliette