My students are enthusiastic learners, but it has been quite a challenge to learn (and teach) chemistry in distance learning. They have shown appreciation for videos I produce that explain difficult concepts and have had many thoughtful questions.
My students are fortunate that our school district adopted 1:1 Chromebooks for 9th and 10th graders last school year.
When distance learning began six weeks ago, district employees gathered all the laptops they could find and delivered them to the homes of the high school students who did not have one. This way they can watch the videos I produce to help them understand the current topics.
My Project
In teaching chemistry, my colleagues and I are sharing demonstrations with our students several times a week. These demonstrations help our students develop critical thinking and important questioning skills as well as engaging them due to the entertainment value. The spectrum bulbs enable the students to see individual spectra while learning about the activity of electrons in an atom and the atomic theory; while the chemical demo kits will allow us to highlight chemical behavior. These demonstrations will be recorded and pushed out to the students with inquiry questions to support the current topic.
Distance learning, now more than ever, spotlights the importance and need for demonstrations in chemistry.
Students will not be able to participate in chemical laboratories themselves while learning from home, but because they have access to computers, students can still observe chemical phenomena.
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