Tag Archives: practical

Using low/mid range visualisers for chemistry demos and why homemade might be best.

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I’ve had a visualiser for a while now after I saw them in everyday use in Chinese schools.  Mine is an Avermedia CP130 visualiser which I generally use connected to a PC (greater resolution/ability to capture video/images).  I’ve used it to project up examples of student work for which it works very well.  It works well with printed images/flashcards and I’ve always been pleased with the results.

My KS4 students have been looking at trends in the periodic table.  I thought that a visualiser would be perfect for showing the reactions of the alkali metals, and for recording them to show absent students.  I tried to get the camera head into a suitable position but where it wouldn’t be at risk of jumping potassium which was easier said than done (I didn’t want to risk damaging it).  Let’s say I wasn’t very impressed.

This is typical of the still images I collected

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This is typical of the video I recorded (I’ve removed the sound since it was captured using the microphone on my laptop and wasn’t much use).

I wasn’t impressed with the quality of the recorded video, and having the flexible neck on the camera didn’t allow the range of usable viewing angles that you would imagine.  My advice?  I’ve seen fellow bloggers talk about building a low cost visualiser (e.g. GlenGilchrist).  My advice is build your own – the quality of video from a home built visualiser will at worse be equal to the quality of the video I captured and would likely be much better.  As well as saving money you are more likely to be adventurous with a camera costing under £50.

BTW I’ll stick to recording my demonstrations with my Flipcam and mini-tripod!

Pepping up teaching the electromagnetic spectrum for SEN students

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We’ve been looking at the EM spectrum this week which is difficult with SEN students who find the idea incredibly hard to grasp.

To make this topic more hands on we’ve done a series of practical lessons looking at different types of waves.  Perhaps you’ll have time to squeeze a few of these in – they do make a dull topic more fun.

Radio waves

Investigating properties of radio waves using a mobile phone by using Bluetooth to send photographs to each other (check your school policy on mobile phone use first!).

Factors which affect Bluetooth signals (worksheet)

Microwaves

Measuring the speed of light using a microwave oven


Infrared

Using a digital camera to view the infrared signal from a DVD remote control.

Light

Spectrum – splitting white light using a prism.

the spectrum worksheet

Ultraviolet

Ultraviolet sensitive beads (work in sun or with a UV lamp).  Also looking at security markers, money, credit cards etc under UV light.

The importance of science induction sessions for the KS2-3 transition

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Induction days are an important part of the academic timetable for science teachers.  They provide an opportunity for science teachers to weigh up the scientific ability of prospective students (and to map it to teacher assessed levels if these have been provided in advance).  Our new intake recently spent the morning with us and the ensuing practical work gave me a very good indication of their science skills.  I saw students manipulating equipment, working in new groups, recording results and interpreting their results.

Induction days are also a good opportunity to excite students about science and to have them looking forward to starting science lessons in September.

My favourite induction activity involves using red cabbage juice as an indicator to classify unknown chemicals as acid, alkaline or neutral.   We also made fridge magnets (laminating student drawings and sticking magnetic tape on the back) which gave me a good idea of each student’s skill with a pencil (handy in a special school!).

Red cabbage indicator.


Wikid Science – how I make mine better

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Practical work.  That’s the main method.  The more the better.  Science is a practical subject and you learn best by doing and making sense of what you have seen.  I like to shoehorn any practical work in that helps students grasp a topic – the more the better.

This lesson in the Pyrotechnics sequence had flame tests in.  Students love flame tests but they don’t really help reinforce the concept of elements and compounds.  The solution?  Keep the flame tests but stick in some extra practical work to reinforce the main learning objectives.  I slotted in a small-scale reaction of iron and sulphur (in CLEAPSS recommended quantities of 2g iron/sulphur mix per student), moving this from the following lesson which already contains plenty of meaningful practical work.

This reinforced the concept of elements and compounds within this lesson, and provided more meaningful practical work than flame tests alone.

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Practical (used to aid teaching) works best when it helps students to grasp the main objective of the lesson.  Don’t be afraid to stick more practical work in your schemes of work if it makes science more fun and aids understanding, or move it to more appropriate parts of your scheme of work.