Missed the MACUL, but I can talk about one of our alum from last week...

Last week we heard from one of the MAC alum's, Adam, who using gaming and simulations in the classroom; specifically Minecraft.  Adam explained that students created their own simulations and interacted with each other.  For every big era, students were "plopped" into appropriate biomes.  Examples of such biomes include forests, tundras and savannahs and they were based on what the students had studied and they had to learn how to live in such biomes. 

In creating simulations, students also had to provide justification for their building.  In doing this, students were motivated to write and negotiate more.  Students also learned that the environment had shaped who they were and they had to do research to figure out what to do in tough situations.  For example, students in a dessert built an aqueduct to serve as a water source--and they supported this creation because the peoples of that era had the technology to do this. 

For these simulations, the teacher (being Adam) played the role of nature and counteracted whatever creations students had built.  For example, students had built a dam by the river in one simulation and left it that way overnight.  The teacher, being nature, caused a flood and explained that when you cause a dam, that water needs to flow somewhere or you'll cause flooding.  Students learned first-hand what it would be like to live in the specific biomes and eras.

I thought the use of gaming in the classroom is an excellent idea!  I know most students around the junior high and high school age play Minecraft.  Although Minecraft is a bit too new for me, I would consider trying to learn how to play it to benefit my students.  However, I wanted to think about something that is gaming and simulations that relates to science.  A game that I grew up with was Resident Evil, and I can having a zombie themed chemistry classroom around playing Resident Evil, but I am not sure how I can align that with state standards. 

Any other ideas on how to include Zombies and Resident Evil into my chemistry classroom??

Return from a Hiatus---Observe Socratic or Enact Twitter?

So I Need Some Help Making a Decision...

              I had the opportunity to observe Tahani (Maize-Chemistry) enact a lesson using Socrative.  To remind some of you, Socrative is an online tool that allows students, or teams of students, to answer a range of questions (multiple choice, short answer, true or false) that you create, as the teacher.  This online tool can be used as a game, as well, in the form of a "Space Race" where students answer questions, and depending on the speed and accuracy of their questions, they move ahead in a race and a student or team of students wins when they complete the most questions in the least time.  This tool would be incredibly useful as a formative or summative assessment to check for students understanding of material.  

               Tahani used this tool (Socrative) to help students review material about chemical bonding.  Students were able to use their cell phones or computers to log into Socrative and answer a range of questions about chemical bonding.  Tahani used this as an opening activity for the class that day so that they can review the content.  Tahani also enacted this lesson the first day back from Finals--so this was a new semester and the last topic students learned was chemical bonding.  This was an excellent way to engage students in recalling and remembering factual knowledge.  Tahani also has access to student results of the questions so if there was a particular question that students messed up on, she could review it.  Excellent!

             As I was observing the lesson, students could not wait to start.  This was evident by students exclaiming "Can we start?"  "Is it ready?"  Also, as students were playing the game they appeared "hooked" into the game because they were very anxious (in a happy anxious kind of way) to answer the questions and wanted to see how far they were in the space race.  Although I also participated in this space race, I gave the students a chance by purposefully taking longer to answer questions and getting three wrong.(Ha)  By the end of the activity, Tahani was able to see which set of students were "ahead" in the space race (and could assess that they, as a whole, understood  the content) and which students were behind.  Amazing!

           I think my chemistry class would love the competitive part of answering questions and being in a race.  Also, it would be a great and efficient way to assess how my students are understanding the content, and which topics or ideas are confusing to many.

Now here's my issue.....

There are two options for the Teach Tech assignment.  The second option is exactly what I did with Tahani's class---observe a tool being used for a lesson.

The first option is to teach a lesson.  

I did have an idea, that I thought would be fun and effectively utilize the piece of technology that is glued to every one of my students hands--the cellphone.  As I walk around my classroom (circulate according to Lemov) every single one of my students (no, seriously EVERY SINGLE STUDENT--I'll get a bible and take pictures if you don't believe me) owns a cell phone.  It is a distraction to them most of the class time.  I wanted to use something that, some tool, or some application that students can use that cellphone and divert their distraction.  This is where I thought about twitter. 

Twitter is a popular application where students can jump on, see other peoples posts or pictures, an d leave a comment.  I know it has been used as a popular social media tool, but I would ask students to focus on several tasks.

I created a "Teacher" twitter account.  I posted several links on there, related to chemistry.

What I was thinking of doing is, one day, students would have to log on to twitter--or get a student twitter account, follow me or find my twitter, look at some of my posts and follow whichever link they feel is most interesting, and do an activity (or something like that) with that link.  Then, their final task is to post a comment on that link, on my twitter, summarizing what they did or learned or how it relates to class--as an exit ticket.  

Since students can continue to have my twitter account, I can assign them tasks outside of class for them to continue to do.

I ran the beginning part of this idea with my mentor teacher and she was not too thrilled because of the social media aspect of it.  With this shut down, I settled for option 2 of this assignment.  I think if anyone thinks its worthwhile to pursue, I can approach my mentor teacher again with evidence and examples and she might be more willing to use it.

Anyone want to share their thoughts?  Help!