Tutorial Two

I can't believe that it is Wednesday night already. I had planned to go straight down to the computers after class and write this up, so I could capture exactly what I was thinking at the time. Like always good plans seem to be more difficult to follow through on.

We started the tutorial with a creative writting task. I really enjoyed the writting task. It was fun to think about chemistry in a fun, creative way, instead of just as sums and equations. Like normal I didn't finish my piece then, because I was having too fun fun developing the story line. So I didn't get all the terms into the story.

I found the discussion about assessment of the piece really interesting. I think I may be in the minority of the class, but I would assess a piece like that in class. I feel that by being able to use the terms correctly within the story it shows far greater mastery of the concepts than is usually shown by students.

I strongly feel that assessment in chemistry should not just be tests or research assignments. In my class I don't value being able to memorise concepts. For example: I don't really care if students have memorised the place of every element in the periodic table. It may make life easier for them in the future, but it is not necessary. Outside of school scientists are expected to remember things, but many of them simply look things up. Their offices are full of books so they can find what they want.

I want to equip my students with knowledge and skills to help them outside of the schooling enviroment. I don't feel memorisation is the biggest part of that so I don't want that to be a major focus on my assessment. As we have been told many times, we assess what we value.

In terms of assessing English skills within Chemistry. I still think it is important for students to see that skills need to be applied to different subjects. School is the only place where we seperate different skills and knowledge into seperate entities. Once again, I want to equip my students for real life, and in real life we need to apply skills from a range of areas at once.

I was talking to a Chemistry lecturer the other day and he commented that he would like to see students coming into University with an understanding that science is not just about being able to perform experiments, recall facts or calculate equations. Science is also about communication with other scientists and the public. He felt that communication with non-scientists is one of the most important tasks of scientists now.
In that way I feel that tasks like the creative writting task would be ideal in helping students to develop their communication skills. There are alot of projects currently being developed about how science can be taught or communicated to the general public throught stories. A student from Monash developed a play which taught children the string theory. That's pretty big!
Creative writting tasks would help students develop these skills.

We also looked at how movies can be incorporated into science classes. I felt really inspired to go off and watch movies after class (which I also haven't found time to do). I can really see how using movies or shows that students are familar with can really engage students. Its connecting with students on their level and making it seem valuable. Its really similar to the book I'm currently reading; The Physics of superheroes. In that he comments that students use to complain that problems with massless planes, and weightless masses were not adaptable to real life. Once he started to do the same problems using examples from comic books, such as calculate the amount of force Superman applies to the ground if he jumps as tall as a 35ft building, students were engaged. They stopped asking why do we have to know this, because a need to know had been generated. Which is how I see the movies could work in class.

We also looked at how movies (especially educational ones) could be used to generate more student engagement by removing one of the senses, such as sound or visual. Without having both senses to rely on students need to work harder to make sense of what was occuring. I admit that I found this occured for me. It was more difficult to make sense of the picture without the sound. It also made me think about all the complex interactions that were taking place. In this way students may actually think about more than just what the sound was telling them. (They may also not). I believe that it would also be useful to see how well students understood what you were teaching them.
Once again it is pushing students past that basic recal stage and asking them to use the information to make sense of the world ( or the TV screen).
It may also give students a confidence boost that they do know chemistry, even if they have trouble with tests. (Where in real life do we do tests?).
On that note I can also see how this could be adapted also as an assessment task, with students providing their own concepts of what was occuring. It would be a little difficult to mark, but it may be a better way of accessing what they know. (But as Keasty said [I think it was him] the more complex the task, as in the higher order the skills required are, the more difficult it will be to mark, because it a much more open task.)

We also devoted time within class to the development of our curriculum. I feel that our curriculum piece is moving very slowly. We don't seem to get enough done in class really. Since last week I have had some more ideas though, so hopefully we get it moving faster this week. (Only one week to have it up :O)