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I am teaching special needs. I've introduced atoms, and would like to move on with a more indepth lesson on molecules. (I had breifly introduced molecules as part of my introduction.)
I introduced a lesson on atoms. I used an interactive lesson on the periodic table,(from a NSTA resource), did an activity using candy pieces to represent an atom, and did an interactive Promethean Board demonstration. When I quizzed them, they still don't seem to understand the concepts. Any ideas?
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Hi Rebecca,
How old are your students? It would help me to know before I gave my recommendations?
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Hi Ruth,
They are high school students.
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Hi Rebecca,
Rather you are teaching middle or high school, I think having the students make a model of a Bohr atom is a good hands-on activity that helps them to better understand what an atom is. I found an article that you might be interested in that shows how to do this activity. It even has a rubric to use for grading the students' completed projects. The article is titled Reactions to Atomic Structure.
I hope this helps.
Carolyn
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Rebecca,
I've had some luck with paper plates or Frisbee if you have them. I use the plates as an example of electrons being transferred or shared with different types of bonding. For example if you were trying to teach them about the molecule NaCl, you would have two kids stand up in front and have the Cl kid donate one plate to the sodium kid. I would repeat for different molecules and maybe add more complex ones depending on their abilities. If you wanted to increase difficulty and they are able to understand valence electrons you can have a plate for each valence electron and show how the outter orbitals like to be filled.
Good luck!
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Thanks Carolyn and Vannesa! I will try putting your good ideas to use.
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Rebecca,
I have put together a small collection you might find useful
Blind Date in Chemistry Class Collection
(8 items)
Blind Date in Chemistry Class Collection
(8 items)
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I have special needs kids, too. One thing I did was get out Legos and described a Lego as an atom in a molecule. The kids can make water by linking up two hydrogens with an oxygen or even make up a "polymer" by linking together the individual Legos as monomers. With my kids the more hands on the better. If you can get them comfortable with the many parallels in chemistry, then it's just a matter of tackling the vocabulary.
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Thanks James and Pam for your great ideas!
Pam, on another note, I was looking at the forum on Kitchen Chemistry. I looked at one of your responses where you gave an assortment of resources. I found several resources in your collection that I would like to use. I'll share a couple that got my attention. One I found interesting was "Kitchen Chemistry 2:Science Stories and Experiments,Cauldron of Everlasting Life". This idea incorporates language arts and science. In order to solve the case, the characters needed to know about acids and bases. I am also teaching language arts so I thought this was a wonderful idea. I also liked the site from Penn State: Simple Experiments and Activites for Youth. This site included experiments for a variety of sciences. I focused on the chemistry experiments. There were a clear explanations on what was happening for each of the experiments.
Thanks again!
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Today, we received our Brook Trout eggs and put them in nurseries in a 50-gallon tank. Now, every day, we will do chemical testing of the water to check the level of dissolved oxygen, pH, ammonia, nitrates, and nitrites. We do this, of course, for the water quality, but we also talk about the different chemicals and their effect on living things and what effects levels and what causes changes. Real hands on chemistry for special needs kids!
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